The Fourth Survivor
by olafur
Summary: A young Sergeant escapes the destruction of Edumea, and soon meets Captain Wyeth and the other two survivors. It is there where the fight for the survival of all Humans begins, and the Sergeant starts to learn how to be Human.
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR: I'm a huge fan of Advent Rising. Yes, the PC version has some bugs, but there's just something aboutthe gamethat I just so love. The universe. The story. The characters. I truly hope the trilogy will continue, but for the moment it all looks uncertain and the only people that can give a true answer are all silend. If I'd have to guess, I think we won't be hearing anything untill the end of this year, about whats gonna happen.**

**I did found an old article on gamespot, dating from last december, that Donald Mustard had left glyphx and started his own company or something, and was working on something super secret. Maybe its the next Advent game. Maybe its something else. All I know is that Mustard has been said to be commited to the trilogy, so I will continue to hope untill something is heard of him.**

**Anyway, lets get to that story I wrote. Its an OC fic and the name should give a hint to whats gonna happen to him. He's also wearing those grey uniforms,with the mask and blue goggles.I would also like to note that I am Icelandic and dont have a spell-checker so there are bound to be some erros, but I hope you will see pass that. Hope you enjoy!**

**(oh yeah, I know in the manual, the war that had been going on before the Aurelians came was called the Independence war in the game manual, but in the comics its called the Colony War. So, I flipped a coin and Colony War was chosen. Just so no one gets confused.)**

* * *

"Hold the line, damnit! Hold the line! Don't let these bastards through!"

A stray rocket hit a burning car instead at the center of the attacking aliens, the only kill was one of those huge dog like creatures.

"Try to aim next time, Lansson! We don't got unlimited ammo here!"

"S-sorry, sir!"

"Don't be sorry! Be a killer!" Snapped the Colonel.

"They're making another charge!" As the words left the marine's mouth, a collective roar came from the aliens and dozens of them came charging across the burning street and towards the dug-out defenders, the sight of these huge creatures almost cracking the already strained marines.

Severel of them opened fire imidiatly, but the Colonel ordered otherwise, "Don't waste your ammo! All units, open fire when they pass that burning red convertible! Except you, Deadeye! Take as many of 'em as you can!"

"_snkt-_ _Already am, sir,"_ came the cool reply from the Colonel's radio, as the leading creature, the biggest of the charging aliens, got a part of its head blown off. The body hit the ground and was imidiatly trambled by its own kind, they not even looking like they had noticed it. A second later, another of the aliens received a headshot, then another after that and another, yet the horde kept charging. When the marines finally opened fire, there were still over twenty of the aliens left.

A rocket hiting at the center took out five, while severel fell from the marines' fire. For just a second, it looked none of the aliens would reach the marines, when a large figure jumped up from behind the remaining alins, and landed among the marines. It was slimer then what they had seen so far, yet it was the most tallest, nearly three times taller then an average man, it holding some kind of a spear that was longer then the owner. Imidiatly, one of its large hands grabbed a marine's head and gaved a quick twist, then tossed the body away like a doll and charged towards the next one, decapitating a marine as it passed him. Panick erupted among the marines as they concentrated their fire on the attacker, completly ignoring the charging aliens and the yells from the Colonel.

Only Cain "Deadeye" Duncan, hiding in a balcony that gaved the perfect view over the streets kept firing at the charge. His killings almost mechanical, he moved the aim with skilled ease, taking headshot after headshot, not bothering to test his bullets against the aliens' body armour. Only when the last alien fell, just meters away from the defence line, did he look for the one that was causing havoc. He only had one bullet left in his rifle, but when he saw the big alien he knew he wouldn't need it. Its upper torse was covered in its purple blood, its hold on the spear looking strained as it slowly tried to rush towards the nearest marines. Another wave of shots blew chunks of flesh away as it staggered, then finally hit the ground, not moving.

Sweeping over the line, Cain saw that of the eighteen marines that been alive before the charge, only ten remained.

_Shit. They threw over twenty of their own just to cover one. And it looks like it has worked. _

Their poor defence line, consisting mostly of cars and rubble, had already been stretched to begin with, and ammo was starting to get low. Cain himself had three clips left for his sniper rifle, but since numbers favored the aliens, it was not much. If the aliens would make another charge...

"_Snkt-_ _Deadeye! Tell me what you see!" _Colonel Harks' voice also showed strain. Little surprise, since no matter how many aliens they killed, five would take its place. That, and the local comm was filled with worse news. The streets were filled with those aliens bodies, and Cain tried to ignore the state of the buildings around them, seeing more of the city slowly crumbling would do no good.

"Duncan here, sir. No sign of life on the streets. I can see some movement coming from the aliens side," a head poked up from behind a broken wall, its face almost identical to the tall spear-swinging one. Cain didn't waste a moment in sending his last bullet to its head, "but it looks like they are laying low for now."

"_Snkt-_ _Understood. Inform me of any changes. Harks out."_

Cain automaticly nodded as he ejected the empty clip and loaded a new one. No sooner had he done so, when Colonel Harks' voice came again.

"_Snkt-_ _All right, all units, squad one has succesfully evacutated all civilians into the sewers. I've ordered them to safeguard the civilians out of this city, and we are needed near Cardon Spaceport. Sounds like the bastards have taken an interest there. You all got one minute to grab whatever ammo you can find."_

As the Colonel made the order, an echo of a sound emited across the street and he brought the scope to his eye to see what it was.

Sergeant Cain Duncan had a cool head and a cool mind. To a sniper, these traits were only second to patience. Cain had seen many things and done much during the Colony War, having fought in it for nearly four years before it finally ended, and two of those years had been spent in Spec Ops. Even an alien invasion had barely rattled his mind, though a part of him had wondered for a moment wether he should be worried for the lack of emotions that had triggered, then simply decided his battle-mode, a thing he had developed during the war where every feeling and emotion was pushed asside for the mission, had simply been activated on reflex.

But what he saw at that moment through the scope almost made him lose his cool.

"C-Colonel Harks! We...we have a situation."

"_snkt- What? What is it!" _

"I...I am not sure what I am seeing, but..." At the end of the street were five of those alien troopships that had landed what remained of the market place, and out of one of them came three...metal beings. It looked like...battle-robots of some kind. And out of the other four transports pored even more troops. Judging by the line that was forming, their destination was here, "...alien reinforcemends, and it looks like they have brought in the big guns, along with over fourty troops."

Stunned silence came from the Colonel. Thankfully, Cain had brought in the bad news via personnel comlink with the Colonel, and not the unit's comm. That, without a doubt, would have broken them. Cain heard the Colonel cut off the comm with him, then heard his voice over the unit comm, _"Snkt- Alright everybody! Hustle up! Sounds like we're needed badly at that spaceport! We're moving out now!"_

Waisting no time, Cain got to his feet, slung his rifle to his shoulder, then grabbed the robe he had tied to the balcony and jumped over. Using his military training, he slidded down the apartmend building as fast as he dared. He had no idea how long it would take the aliens to form up and move, or if they even did that at all, but he guessed less then three minutes.

By the time he reached the ground, Colonel Harks' unit were already moving towards the cargo elevator that lead straight up to the upper defence line. Judging by the explosions up there and the swarm of alien fighters and troopships in the sky, the battle was just as hard as it was down here.

As he wipped away sweat from his face and dust from his short blond hair,he realised he had forgotten his mask and goggles up on the balcony, but going back for it wasin't an option. Instead he gave his surroundings a quick scan with his light-grey colored eyes, his twenty one year old face showing no emotion. With no signs of the incoming alien attackers, he turned and ran towards the cargo elevator where the rest of his unit had went to.

* * *

The hangar was burning.

And yet, they still fought.

The capital city was crumbling around them.

And yet, they still fought.

Huge alien ships were slowly making their way towards the city.

And yet, they still fought.

Wave after wave, the enemy came.

And yet, they still fought.

What else could they do?

* * *

"Sir! We were able to re-route auxiliry powers into the turrets, they're on-line!"

"Finally! Deadeye! You're our best shooter, you take one of the turrets and make sure they don't attack our rear!"

"Yes, sir!" Cain handed the rocket launcher to the marine next to him, then ran away from the defence line, keeping his head low as green laser shots flew over his head. As Cain reached the turrets, they were slowly rising up and powering, all in all there were three of them now on-line.

It wasin't enough by a longshot, but that did not stop Cain and two other marines taking controls. The two marines started turning the turrets inside of the hangar, "No! Concentrate your fire on the troopships! Don't give them a chance to land here!" As if to emphasize his point, Cain opened fire on a passing alien ship. Pieces of its black hull was blown away, but it still flew when it dissappeared out of sight. The next ship was not so lucky, nor the third.

* * *

Half of the troopship's engines blew, sending the black ship spiraling towards the ground. Cain ignored the victory shouts coming from some of the marines, focusing on finding the next target. There were plenty to go around.

Out of the corner of his sight, Cain saw that someone finally bothered to try and put out the flames of the turret on his left. The guy in the controls had lost himself after seeing a civilian transport getting blown up, shooting at anything that moved, with the exception of a rocket that directly hit him.

The battle for the hangar had reached a stalemate, neither side taking or giving in territory, but both fought furiosly.

"_-snkt! Repeat: This is generel message from Admiral Torn to all units; should you locate Captain Wyeth, you are to bring him to Command HQ. Any other orders you have will have to be put asside! Repeat: This is generel message from-" _The same message had been repeating itself over and over again for the past hour.

_Makes sense. We could use someone with Captain Wyeth's experience. Hell, we could use a hundred Wyeths right about now. Even his little brother would do just fine._

Asside from the generel broadcast, the battle-comm was filled with grim news. The aliens were simoltaniosly attacking all military targets within and outside Bahr Han city and beyond, the hope of getting any armour support was lost, what little remained of air units were getting shot down one by one and all military units on the ground were under heavy fire and on their own with no hope of getting any kind of reinforcements anytime soon.

Another troopship got close and fired five rockets. Cain shot four of them and the fifth flew pass him and hit the hangar's floor, making some people fly of their feet but no one seemed to have gotten killed. Cain targeted the engines, since it looked like the front of the ships were built with their armor strongest. The ship tried to veer sharply to the right, but Cain kept his aim on the engines and didn't release the trigger untill the engines exploded.

Then something unexpected happened.

Maybe the pilot decided to take out as many of them as it could or berhaps it just happened to move at the same time the engines exploded. Whatever the reason, the ship lurched forward on a crash course, straight towards Cain's position.

"Everybody run!" yelled Cain, as loud as he could as he jumped off the turret and ran as fast as he could. Panicked cries came from those who saw what was coming as they too broke into runs. The incoming troopship crashed into the two turrets, the explosions from the turrets momenterily shook the entire installation as the ship, now on fire, slidded across the hangar, heading dangerously close towards the marines' line.

When it finally stopped, the bulk was in the way for Cain to see if it had hit any of the marines. In fact, it was blocking the entire way, the only way to reach them was to run around the entire hangar, "Colonel Harks, this sergeant Duncan! Come in, sir!" For long seconds nothing but static came from the radio, untill finally a familiar curse came from it.

"_snkt-oddy hell that was close! Sergeant! I thought you were called Deadeye for a reason! The hell happened?"_

"I'm sorry sir, but the pilot must have tried to get us all as I blew its engines. Are there any casulties, sir?"

"_snkt-Hell yes we got casulties, though none because of that damn ship! And why have the turrets all gone silend?"_

"The ship got the remaining two turrets, sir, we're defenceless on this section of the hangar."

"_snkt-Defenceless? I know for a fact that there are three more turrets on the other side of that section of the hangar! Have those tech heads to make them up and running NOW!"_

Cain looked around, searching for anyone wearing tech uniforms. People were slowly recovering from running away a crashing ship, but none of them were the techs. A Private carrying a medkit ran past Cain and he quickly grabbed the Private's shoulder, "Have you seen any of the technicians?"

"I-I don't know, s-sir, I-I think I h-heard someone f-fall when the turrets exploded!" The Private resumed his running towards the wounded, just as Cain spotted a burning body laying on the floor between the two ruined turrets.

"Sir, this is Duncan. Both of them are dead."

"_snkt- Come again?"_

"One was killed when the turrets exploded and a Private belives he heard someone fall of the hangar."

"_snkt- sonofa!-"_ Colonel Harks' transmission ended abrudly, and sounds of alien weapons charges were heard on the other side of the downed ship, mixed with rifle fire from the marines.

"Colonel! Colonel Harks, what's happening?"

"_snkt- The bastards are making another push! Sergeant, gather whatever men you can find and establish a defence line! I'm putting you in charge to hold them off, so don't make me regret it!" _

Hearing those words made Cain pause, trying to comprehend if he had heard right, "But...sir, I-"

"_snkt- you're wearing those rank bars for a reason!"_

"But I only got them five days ago, sir, and I don't have the experience to command a unit!"

"_snkt- well, son, I guess now's the time as good as any to start learning. Harks out."_

For just a second, Cain did nothing. Up untill now, he had simply been a Private. A Private that was part of Spec Ops, but Private none the less, were he took orders instead of making them. Then, after the war, someone up in High Command noted his service record and gaved him a jump all the way to Sergeant just five days ago. He had never ordered anyone in his entire life, hell, he had barely spoken to anyone during the Colony War and now...

...now he had been placed in command.

During an alien invasion.

That made him snap back to the real world.

"Private! How many of the wounded are able to fight?" He barked as he marched towards where the wounded were, in one of the hangar's corners. Over a dozen had white sheets on top of them, most of them bloody.

"Ah, s-sir, I-I'm n-not a qualified medik, I'm still being trained!" The kid, not even old enough to shave, was visibly shaking and his eyes were wide and his mind no doubt on the verge of a shutdown. That would not do.

"Then who's your trainer?"

The kid silendly pointed at one of the white sheets.

_Damn._

"Inspect the wounded. Anyone that can stand on one leg and shoot with one hand are to be given weapons. When thats done, you come to me and tell me how many you were able to muster."

"B-but, sir! I-"

"Just do as you're told, Private. Its that simple," Cain made himself sound clear his order was to be followed, yet the kid looked for a moment he was about to argue, then shakily nodded and ran towards the wounded. Near the elevators, Cain spotted a Corporal going over some supply boxes.

"Corporal! What's the status with the ammo?"

The Corporal, with a nasy cut on his thirty something year old face, looked Cain with irritation, then blinked startled when he noticed the rank bars, "Ah, sir, its, its not looking good. We only got four boxes left for the XJ9, two for the Faust C-41 and all the remaining ammo for the rocket launchers are with them," he replied, pointing towards the crashed ship where Harks was on the other side.

"Uh, sir?" Turning, the kid was back, "I-I was able to get f-five more able bodies, sir."

_Five more, adding to the eight marines that are still on their feet, including me. Lucky thirteen. _

"I see. Corporal, give fresh ammo clips to-" Cain blinked as he spotted civilians sitting among the wounded and probably trying not to panic, "What are those civilians doing there?"

"Oh, uh, t-they were at the hangar at the beginning of the a-attack, sir. T-they haven't been in the way and-"

"Private, have those civilians help you move the seriosly wounded into the elevators here and get them to a safe place. Corporal, give ammo clips to those who need it," Cain turned to get a full view of the hangar's section he was supposed to defend, but instead he blinked in surprise.

Before Cain was given command, the marines who could walk had looked uncertain, unsure of what proper action was best, but when hearing that someone had stepped up and started issuing orders, they had all walked to Cain, waiting for him to tell them what to do, including the wounded.

Cain didn't waste a moment.

"We are to defend and repel the attackers. We'll need proper defencives so I want these crates moved to form a barricade that will cover half the hangar. We're low on ammo, so make your shots count. Get to it," Cain had seen hundreds of orders given, all differendly said depending on the officer, but he felt that a slightly raised, clear and calmed voice was the best one in this situation. He silendly hoped he had sounded as well as he intended. He didn't bother to add something encouraging, like help would be on the way or that they could beat those aliens easily. All the marines were grown up men, all experienced and they all knew the score. The fight was going to get worse before it would have a chance to get better.

As the marines received ammo from the Corporal, an all too familiar sounds of engines was heard approacing the hangar. Everyone looked as one as the alien troopship appeared, hovering just outside the hangar, looking like it was prepearing itself to land. Cain didn't give any order, there was no need. As one, they all loaded up and took cover wherever they could find it and aimed their weapons at the ship, waiting for the enemy to make the first move.

The ship lurched forward and every finger tightened on the trigger. Cain brought the scope to his eye, ready to take out any fired missiles.

Then, the ship suddenly stopped, almost looking uncertain where it just hovered, then turned and flew away.

The only thing breaking the silence in the hangar was the burning ship, and the sounds of battle outside.

"Did...did I just see that?" Asked one of the marines to no one in particular.

"I was about to ask the same thing," remarked another.

Cain didn't like this new tactic. Not one bit. Those aliens had shown no hesitation in throwing themselves into a fight before, why would they start doing it now?

"_snkt- Harks to Duncan! Is the same thing happening to you thats happening to us?"_

"If you mean that the aliens suddenly decided to go away, sir, then yes, we are."

"_snkt- I don't like it. I don't like it one bit! Stay on your toes, they may be gathering up their forces for one huge strike."_

"Yes, sir," Cain then turned to the marines, "alright, everyone continue building that defence line . I want it ready in five," Without waiting to see if the marines followed his order, Cain jogged towards the opening of the hangar, his grib on his rifle tightening. When he reached the edge, he was given a big view of Bahr Han City. It took a lot of his self-control to suppress the massive urge to fall to his knees, to yell in rage or feeling totally hopeless.

It looked like every street on the ground, every rooftop and every defence platforms were being fought over brutally. What was worse, they were losing. Slowly. Gradually. So far, no one had uttered a word of surrender or retreat on the comms. After all, why would that make the aliens stop when a surrender was given, when they were winning at their own leisure?

Another sound of alien engines and a troopship flew past the hangar, the air current almost knocking Cain off his feet. Yet another ship had ignored this hangar, when everything else was being fought over. As Cain tried to figure out why, he finally noticed that something was...off. He couldn't put his finger on it, it was just...there. A feeling. A gut instinct, and his guts were rarelly wrong.

Seeing nothing, he instead listenned and almost imidiatly heard it. It sounded like the engines of the aliens, only these ones were deeper, sounded bigger too and...it was causing the hangar to slightly vibrate. Cain blinked as that info sank in, looking at his hand that had rested against the metal wall, feeling and seeing his hand slightly vibrate.

Then, something blocked the sun.

Cain looked upp purely on reflex. Then wished by all the mightiest power in the entire univers that he hadn't done so.

Slowly sailing through smoke and clouds, a ship bigger and wider then the talles building in the city, slowly came forth, its size and shape meant to strike fear in anyone that saw it. Cain's breath got stuck in his throat untill he noticed how close the ship was sailing pass the hangar, and the numerous guns on it.

_If it continues its course it'll be perfectly aligned to..._

"Everybody off this hangar! Move! Move! Move!" Cain yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran back towards his troops, fumbling for his radio, "Harks! Harks! This is Duncan, you have to leave the hangar right now!"

"_snkt- The hell did you just say?"_

"Sir, an alien capital ship is about to pass by and the reason why the smaller ships are ignoring us is because they intend to blow this place up! You have to get out of here now!" Strings of curses came from Harks as Cain reached his unit. Cain felt a moment of slight relief when he saw that the wounded had been moved into one of the elevators, but that left only one for the rest.

"_snkt- Listen sergeant, we can't waste time circling around the place to reach you, so we're going for the cargo elevator on the other side of the hangar. When you've evacuated everybody, meet us at the Hickard Museum. Good luck, son, Harks out."_

"Everybody into the elevator now!" Snapped Cain when he reached his men.

"Sir?"

"An alien capital ship is about to pass by and the reason why the troopships have been ignoring us is because they're gonna blow this place up. Now move!" The marines needed no more encouragement as they ran for the last remaining elevator. But the elevator was too small, and when it was full, there were two other marines left outside including Cain.

One of the marines in the elevator slowly started to get out, "Sir, I think-"

"That you all head for the Hickard Museum where you will meet Colonel Harks. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," and with that, Cain pressed a button and the elevator doors closed. Waiting for a few seconds, Cain called for it again and waited for it, while the other two marines were unable to hide their nervousness, and it only increased the as the sounds of the big ship's engines slowly became louder and the metal crates around started vibrating.

After waiting for what seemed like hours, the elevator finally came back, revealing it to be empty. Cain and the marines quickly got in, and just as the doors opened, a part of the alien ship could be seen through the hangar doors.

"Oh my God..." One of them whispered, and a second before the doors closed, a bright purple flash came from the ship.

Huge explosions sounds came as the elevator went down, the entire building shaking with each explosion. Then suddenly, the doors above them bursted open, and flames rushed in. The sounds of something snapping came, and the elevator started to crash down.

"Shit! Someone hit the brakes!" A marine yelled while hanging on to a railing. The other marine said something, but the explosions above them drowned out the words. Cain tried to reach the controls when the brakes kicked in. The elevator lurched and kept falling down, though it was slowing. The same marine smiled and yelled something happy, when the sounds of metal ripping apart came and the elevator went back into full speed down.

Cain sat in the corner, bracing himself for the crash and the other marines tried to do the same. The elevators were toughly build, but there was no way telling how far up they had started falling. Maybe-

When the elevator reached the ground, the shock made Cain black out.


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR: Well, here's chapter 2, hope that many people have been waiting and that they won't get dissapointed! Special thanks to TheMadHatter577 and Talos for their reviews! Getting those means a lot to me and I hope to get more in the future.**

* * *

Blood.

Metal.

Fire.

The first three things Cain smelled as he slowly regained conciosness.

Explosions.

Weapons discharge.

Metal scrapping against metal.

The first three things Cain heard as he slowly regained conciosness.

A body.

Blood splatters acroos the floor.

The elevator doors opening and closing.

The first three things Cain saw as he slowly regained conciosness.

He ached all over but nothing was broken. Unfortunadly, the two marines had not survived the crash. But he couldn't let that affect him. He needed to get out of here, he was suppose to meet Harks at the museum.

Shakily getting back to his feet, Cain grabed his rifle and jumped through the elevator doors as they opened.

* * *

The situation on the streets was the same. If anything, it looked worse. As he slowly made his way down the street, carefully keeping himself hidden behind debri and wreckage, he saw more and more bodies of his species and less and less of the aliens. The majority of the human bodies were civilians, many looking like they had been beaten to death...

_Do they even know the term Prisoner of War? Unless they're intend here is not to conquer, but to..._

He pushed that thought out of his mind and focused on the task; getting to that museum. But it was more difficult getting there then he first thought. For one thing, since every landmark and signs had been blown up, it was next to imposible to know where he was going. To make it worse, his radio had been severely damaged when the elevator crashed and it could barely receive any kind of transmission and not send any.

He needed to find someone with a working radio quick and-

Nearby, the sounds of gunshots was heard. Gunshots from a human weapon. Other marines. With a working radio.

Cain ran towards the source of the gunshots, taking a shortcut through a narrow alley.

* * *

Cain stuck to the shadows as he slowly approached the alley's exit. The gunshots sounded closer, and over the fire he could hear something else, like a shout or a yell. But the odd part of it all was that there were no sounds of any alien weapons. Had the aliens depleted they're ammo and started using human weapons? Or worse, were there nothing but humans fighting humans?

SQUASH

Cain blinked and looked down. Lifting his right foot, he saw he had stepped into an odd blue glowing liquid of some kind. Touching some of it with his finger, he brought it up to his nose and took a whiff. It didn't seem to have any kind of smell, and for a frightening second, a thought wondered if this was some kind of alien bio-weapon of some kind. But since he was still alive and felt fine, well, fine considering that he had just survived an elevator crash, the glowing liquid must have been something else.

Wipping the stuff away to the nearest wall, Cain slowly walked out of the alley, quickly scanning the street to his left for any hostiles, then turned to the right and-

-and almost jumped when he saw an alien ship had crashed into the building just right next to him.

But the real kicker was that the ship wasin't one of the black hulled troopships, if anything, that ship didn't resemble the attacking aliens at all. Nearly half of the ship was missing, it looked a bit smaller, sleeker and had a purple colored hull that seemed perfectly smooth in areas that wasin't all banged up. There were also couple of bodies laying on the rubble outside the ship, and it was clear by just looking at them that they were not of the same species as the aliens that were now attacking. One had its head, right arm and nearly half of its chest missing. The rest of the body was covered in some kind of white silver armour, and a long, sharp looking blade was attached to the left arm.

The other body was on fire, so it was imposible to tell what it had looked like before dying. For some unexplainable reason, the smell of the burning body made Cain think of fish and chips.

Cain's thoughts were pushed asside when he spotted something glowing among the rubble. Picking it up, it was some kind of a small, blue glowing ball, the color of it resembling the blue liquid he had stepped on earlier. Cain wondered what the blue thing was, as he now saw dozens of the balls scattered around the crash-site. Whatever those things were, these new aliens had them in amble supplies.

_...wait a minute. These new aliens...are they the same ones that-_

BANG

BANG

BANG

Gunshots echoed across the street. It sounded close, probably just on the other side of that nearby warehouse.

* * *

"_You bastards! You monsters! You think you can get away with this? You messed with the wrong species today!"_ The marine fired severel more shots towards where the aliens were hiding, screaming in fury as he fired. He didn't seem to notice or care that the silver white armored aliens did not try and fire back, nor did he seem to notice that they were trying to say something, or that the rest of them were fighting against the other aliens on the other side of the ship.

Cain skillfully made his way towards the marine, taking cover behind supply crates and machinery in the big warehouse he was in. It used to belong to some mining company, but the place now had no roof, the reason for that was probably at the center of the place. A small, purple armored alien ship, roughly the size of a small transport. A glance at it and Cain saw it was the same type of ship he had seen nearby, though this one was in one piece, save for a damaged looking engine that seemed to be getting hurringly fixed by two of the silver armored aliens.

_What are those things on they're heads?_

The marine's pistol clicked empty and as he loaded another clip, Cain made his move.

"Marine, what do you think you're doing?" The marine turned to Cain, startled at his sudden appearance, and Cain saw in his eyes in what state he was in. He had seen it many times during the Colony War, most of it from the Bental Massacre. This marine had lost it, his common sense and rational mind replaced by frenzied fear and paranoia.

"Wh-wh-what am I doing? I'm killing the enemy, that's what!" He screamed hystericly as he fully loaded the gun and started to aim back at the aliens. Cain quickly stepped closer and grabbed his arm and pushed it away.

"Then you're shooting at the wrong enemy. These are the ones that arrived first, three days ago, remember? They are not the attackers," a part of Cain's mind scolded him for trying to reason with the crazed man, when he perfectly knew he was beyond any words. The other part simply didn't want to hurt or kill someone who was supposed to be on the same side as he.

Judging by the expression on the marine, he didn't feel the same.

"Not the attackers? _Not the attackers?_ Just look at them! They're aliens! They're gonna kill us all! My entire unit has been whipped out! My homecity is burning and you say they ain't responsible?.! The hell is wrong with you!"

"Look, they arrived three days ago and did nothing. A diplomatic ship was send and-"

"Nothing? Did _nothing_? They send down probes, it was all over the news! They were studying us, finding out a weakness, the best way to kill us all!" Cain briefly glanced towards the new aliens and saw that the two seemed to be observing the exhange with the crazed marine. The fact that they hadn't taken the opportunidy to fire at them only proved his point that they weren't the enemy, though he had no intentions of pointing that out. He did, however, see that a fresh wave of the reptile looking aliens were fighting hand to hand with the other aliens.

"Just look at them, Private!" snapped Cain, pointing the fight with his left hand, "They too are fighting against the ones that have been killing us! They are on the same side as us!" But the Private looked like he hadn't heard a word of what he had said, his attention fixed on Cain's left hand.

"What the hell is that?"

"What?" Cain blinked and looked at his left hand, and saw to his surprise that he was still holding that glowing ball, "I...I don't what it is, I found it near a crash site and-"

"It belongs to them, doesn't it? You're one of them!"

"Now just wait a damn-"

The marine shot him.

Cain blinked.

The second shot made him stumble backwards.

The third made him lose his balance and he fell down on his back, still not beliving what had just happened.

_He...he shot me!_

_I've never been shot before..._

Cain blinked as the marine stood over him, his face twisted in hatred as his mouth moved, but his ears were ringing and he didn't hear a word of what he said, though his lips ended with a word he did read.

Traitor.

The marine raised his gun and aimed at Cain's head, intending to finish him off.

A large hand grabbed his head from behind and lifted him up like he was nothing. The large, blue skinned reptile roared as the marine tried to aim his gun at it, but it grabbed his arm and twisted it in the wrong direction and the marien cried out in pain. As the marine dangled in its grib, the alien brought an odd looking green device to his head and slowly ran it over his head, as if...scanning his head. But whatever the device did, the alien didn't like the result.

Cain could do nothing but watch as the alien slammed the marine hard to the ground, only to lift him up again and slam him down again and again and again. The marine had propably died in the second or third slam, but the creature continued anyway untill it was satisfied, finally tossed away the bloody pulp that was once a human's head.

The alien then turned its attention on Cain.

As it stood over him, Cain tried to breathe, but something was stuck in his throat. Coughing, a mouthfull of warm blood came from his mouth, it slowly leaking down his chin and neck. The alien's lips curled into a crual smirk, and it sounded like it was chuckling. It was then that Cain realised that the aliens that were attacking Edumea were not some wild savages, or a horde obeying some higher intelligence.

The aliens were killing humans because they could, they knew what they were doing and they enjoyed it.

Gritting his bloodied teeth, Cain used all the strength he had in his right arm to raise up his rifle to shoot the alien. But it flew out of his grib when it lazily slapped it away. The alien then raised an eye-ridge, as if contemplating what to do with Cain. It looked at the scanner attached to its arm, then back at him.

A sadistic smile appeared on its lips as it pulled the device away, crackled its knuckles and started to reach down for him, the glee in its yellow eyes looking like the alien was about to do something it enjoyed very much.

But just before it grabbed him, a white blur slammed into it, tobbling both over and they dissappeared out of Cain's sight. He tried to raise his head up to see what was going on, but the pain in his chest and stomach was too great. All he heard was the sounds of physical struggle and there was no way of telling who was winning.

One of the white armored aliens was suddenly standing over him. Carefully, as if not wanting to frighten him, it slowly kneeled and seemed to be looking over his wounds, though it was imposible to tell since its face was hidden behind a plate. Then a strange sound came from it, its voice sounding like it had two throats or something, but Cain didn't understand a word of it, though the voice sounded gentle and then it placed its long, three fingered hand on his shoulder, as if trying to assure him of something. A second alien appeared, its armour splattered in purple blood. But when it saw Cain, it recoiled back as if the sight was a physical blow, and it said something in its language, almost sounding...frightfull.

"What..." gurgled Cain, but only more blood came out of his mouth by his effort. The kneeling alien said something to him, again sounded like it was trying to calm him. The other one suddenly said something hurridly and pointed at something near Cain. The kneeling alien looked where it had pointed, and for a moment looked taken back. Then it reached down and picked up the blue glowing ball, turned its faceplate on Cain and said something, waving the blue ball as if that would explain it.

But before anything else happened, a third alien voice was heard, a yell that came from the ship. Both aliens looked towards the source, then at each other, the one kneeling made a gesture at Cain and said something, while the other nodded and dissappeared out of sight. As the other said something calmly to him, Cain felt the alien fingers go under his back and legs and before he could realise what the alien was doing, he was gently lifted up as if he weighted nothing, and the alien carried him carefully, though hurringly, towards their ship.

_...wh-whats...ha-happening...wh...where..._

His breath quickened as he felt himself starting to panic, and the shock of getting shot was dissipating, slowly replaced by the pain of his wounds. It was difficult to breathe, one of the shots must have punctured a lung, and he could feel the second bullet had gone through his stomach but had no idea where the third one had went. Getting shot at such close range, all three bullets must have gone through his body. He didn't know how long he had left, only that he had heard getting shot in the lungs would take hours to die, while a shot through the stomach was the most painfull way and equilly long. But both at the same time? It could be hours. It could be less then one.

Just before Cain was carried up the ship's boarding ramp, the last thing he saw was the sky, and hundreds of the troopships, all slowly dissappearing in the clouds.

_They're...leaving?_

The interior of the ship held the same alien touch as it did outside, everything build sleekly and colored in ocean blue. A low humming sound slowly rose, the ship's engines powering up. The alien carrying Cain gently placed him down and kneeled next to him, turning its head to one of its kind, giving some kind of an order before turning back to him, gently pressing its hand at one of his wounds. Cain breathed in sharply of the pain that came with that, but the alien did not ease the hand's pressure. As the alien returned and handed some kind of a big sea-shell to the other, three more entered the ship in a hurry but stopped dead in they're tracks when they saw Cain.

They just stood there until the kneeling alien noticed them and yelled something at them. Two of them slowly walked to the seats opposite Cain, they're faceplates never looking away from him, while the third made an odd gesture, bowing with its hand in front of it and with the other behind it before sitting down as the ramp closed.

The alien opened the shell, containing some kind of green stuff, the strong odor of it almost making Cain's eyes go watery. It picked some up with its fingers, said something to Cain and then smeared it on the stomach wound.

Cain opened his mouth to scream, but choking sounds came instead. That didn't stop the alien from smearing some more of that green stuff on the rest of his wounds, and Cain gritted his teeth as the ship lurched. Cain's vision suddenly darkened, and somewhere deep in his body, he started to feel cold. Weak.

He was dying. He could feel it. It was a feeling he had never experienced before, and yet he knew that was what he felt inside him.

The aliens should have just left him there, what could they possibly do? Did they belive they could somehow save him? Or was that even the plan? Had they something else in mind? Study? Diception?

The ship started to shake as it rose high in the sky, and the alien mumbled something and stood up, looking like it was about to strap itself to one of the seats. At that moment, an uncontrolable fear struck Cain, right into his soul.

_No!_

Cain's right hand suddenly found a new source of strength, as it grabbed the alien's hand before it could walk away. It slightly flinched, as if surprised and looked down at him.

"...don't...want to..."each word took a hellish effort to whisper, as his his throat felt like it was on fire. But he forced himself to say the words anyway, "...die...alone..."

Few people knew their darkest, deepest fear. Not the kind of fear of spiders or rats, but the one that reached deep into the depths of the mind, that shook the very soul. After finishing training and spenting a month in the Colony War, a mission to infiltrate a small outpost that went horribly bad, had made Cain realise his.

To die alone.

He knew asking the alien to stay with him was absurd, since it probably didn't understand a word of what he had said, for one thing. But maybe it understood the gesture of what he had said, or berhaps, it too just somehow understood because both were soldiers. Whatever the reason, the alien actually nodded and stayed with him.

And removed its helmet.

Its skin was dark-bronze colored and the eyes were bright gold. When Cain had first seen these new aliens back at the warehouse, he had assumed that those things on their heads were simply a part of their helmets, but in truth it was a part of themselves. And as it spoke, the jaw split in two and deep voice came from it, sounding like it had two throats and somewhere at the back Cain's surprised mind, he thought that the alien face resembled a lot like a fish, for some reason.

The ship shook again as it took a sharp turn, and Cain could hear explosions come outside. He noticed for a second a bright flash in the room, and as he slowly raised his head, he saw that the ramp had a window, giving a view of Edumea as they broke orbit.

It was on fire.

_...what..._

The surface was beeing bombarded, but the explosions...it was too big to be nuclear bombs, or any kind of explosives Cain knew of. Then what was-

Suddenly, a large asteroid appeared in the view and crashed where the Hillsbrad Mountains were.

"...no..."

The sound was so small, like a child's, and only when Cain's hand covered his mouth did he realise it had come from him.

But then, the worst part appeared.

Nearly the size of a moon, burning brightly like a minature sun, it came towards Edumea at an impossible speed, and hit the planet. The flash momenterily blinded Cain's eyes, but when it returned, cracks had appeared across the planet as it looked like it was about to explode from the inside.

"NO!"

Cain rose up screaming, reaching towards his homeworld as if trying to stop what was happening, while the alien grabbed him and stopped him from rising up any further.

"GET YOUR STINKING HANDS OFF OF ME!" He struggled, yelled, punched and spat at the alien, but it remained its firm grib on him. The pain of the bullet wounds was nothing compared to the anquish, anger and despair raging inside him, and when the ship entered hyperspace, the last thing Cain saw of Edumea was half of the planet exploding.

Cain sat there frozen, his hands still up after trying to reach the window. Slowly, the alien pushed him back down, but Cain didn't notice, instead he just layed there, his eyes wide as he stared up into the ceiling, his mind in a totall lockdown.


	3. Chapter 3

**AUTHOR: Well, here's the third chapter, hope you all will find it liking. But just so you know, exams are about to start in my school so I got no idea when I'll be able to write more. **

**Also, I just found out couple of days ago that the Mustards brothers are working on this game called Empire, and are helped by that sci-fi author, Scott Card something. At first glance it looks like Mustard has left the Trilogy, but maybe he intends to get money from this Empire game to buy the rights from Majesco, or something like that. Whatever the results, Itruly hope that the Trilogy will be continued and that Mustard will be in charge of it. Anyone else and it just won't feel like an Advent game.**

**Anyway, heres the chapter, hope you all will enjoy! And please, when you review, feel free to express what you liked and stuff and your thoughts. **

* * *

How long had they been traveling? 

A minute?

A year?

He hadn't noticed, nor cared.

He didn't even blink anymore when the alien smeared more of that green stuff into his wounds.

The alien never left his side. When it wasin't checking his wounds, it held his right hand in its large, three fingered hands while speaking to him. Behind him were the other four of its kind. After they had entered hyperspace, they had hesitandly come closer, and were now on their knees, looking like they were praying.

But Cain didn't notice. His eyes were still on the ceiling, but his mind was far away from everything around him.

_...gone..._

_...everybody just...gone..._

_...like they never existed..._

_...gone..._

_...all gone..._

_...gone...

* * *

_

The small ship dropped out of hyperspace and started to slow down. As it did that, one of the kneeling aliens stood up and walked deeper into the ship. As the ship itself suddenly lurched like a ship at sea, it came back with what looked like an odd stretcher of some kind. The other three aliens stood up to give more room, as the alien looking over Cain gently lifted him up and placed him on the stretcher. When the ramp opened, one of the aliens started pushing the stretcher, while the other still held Cain's hand and continued talking to him as they made they're way out of the ship.

Cain slowly blinked as the scenery changed. The room they were in was much larger and even though he only saw the ceiling and the alien that was talking to him, he just somehow knew he was aboard a ship. As the ceiling rushed by, loud commotions were heard, severel alien voices talking loudly, while many whispered. More then once, Cain spotted one of the fish aliens pass by, those showing their faces looking at him as if they had never seen a wounded human before.

As Cain's vision slowly became blurred, his heartbeat going weaker, a blurry form of an alien appeared on his left, keeping in pace with them while talking quickly to the other alien on his right, before turning to Cain, whispering something, almost sounding like it was pleading him of something as it placed its hand on his shoulder. The moment the contact came, Cain breathed in sharply as an odd, almost eletric feeling suddenly appeared in his brain. It came for just a split of a second and was gone the next, but it had been there.

Blinking to clear his eyes, he looked at the new alien and saw its skin was violet, wearing something red around its shoulders and something that oddly resembled a long mustache was on its face. And when the alien and the human made eye contact, the alien's face suddenly brightened up, as if it had achieved something and spoke as such to Cain. But the words now sounded slurry to him, as everything started to be blurry again, though this time every color started to turn grey, and keeping his eyes open was becoming more harder then he could handle.

The alien on the right said something sharply and Cain felt it squeeze his hand hard. It wanted him to fight longer, to stay awake, but he just felt so tired, so...God damn tired.

He was barely aware that they had stopped and the alien was now carrying him, and it sounded like it was...wading through water? Aboard a ship? Cain felt something wet splash at the back of his head, hand and neck. Using what little strength remained in him, his eyes focused long enough to see that, yes, the alien had carried him to some kind of a large pool, surrounded by odd looking plants. The purple one stood close by, along with some other figures in the back, but they were too blurry to make out properly. Feeling the alien hands that had been holding him dissappear under him, leaving him floating in the water, Cain looked up at the creature as it placed a hand on his chest, saying something in its language and-

-and gently pressed him underwater.

_They...brought me here...to drown me?_

He didn't try to fight back. He didn't care what was about to happen. He was just so damn tired. And before going into the water, he had been getting cold, but now, he felt warm. Except for his right hand, which was still in the alien's hands above the surface. He could feel vibrations coming from its hands, which meant it was still talking. To him or the others of its kind, Cain did not know nor care. All that mattered now was the warmth coming from the water.

His mind started to feel...dull...it was difficult to...think...even...breathing...

_...so tired..._

There was nothing...but the warm darkness...it surrounded him...all but swallowed him...the only part it didn't reach...was his hand...it was still in the cold place...the place where horrible things happen...a place that had no hope...no love...only loneliness...despair...fear...death...so much death...everybody dead...everybody gone...

A small part of his mind that still barely worked, remembered that you were suppose to re-live the life in a flash, but that did not happen.

"_Heard the war is going pretty bad."_

Instead, voices from the past came. The first were non-importand.

"_Cain! Dinner's ready!"_

Something out of simple conversations.

"_Hello, Mr. Duncan, I'm Xander and I'll be your guitar instructor."_

But as time passed, they soon connected to memories. Life defining memories.

"_You want to enlist?.! The hell you will!"_

Painfull memories...

"_Now you listen to me, boy! If you walk through those doors, then NEVER come back!"_

Unwanted memories...

"_My God, what a sorry bunch of no-good losers have been dropped into my lap! What the hell were those recruiters thinking! No one told me the war was going THIS bad!"_

"_Are you eye-balling me, boy?.!"_

"_Get yer ass on the ground and give me twentie!"_

"_Well I'll be! Looks like one of you jarheads actually know how to shoot straight! Let's see how well you do in the advance course! Double time!"_

"_Don't get smart with me, dirtbag!"_

"_Looks like we have ourselves a natural here! What's your name, son? Cain Duncan? Wrong! As of this moment, you're now Deadeye!"_

Memories of relief over something difficult being finally over...

"_-have been drilled by this school's finest, and on this day, the Federation is proud to receive the new defenders of Edumea."_

Only to realise that the worst part was just beginning...

"_Alright, marines, settle down! We have been given our first mission."_

Some parts got mixed up...

"_-assaulting head-on would be suicide-"_

"_-have caught a lucky break-"_

"_-old defences-_

"_-can only be activated by this man-"_

"_-Private Duncan, since you're the closest thing we have for a sniper-"_

...but they all lead to one memory...

"_-units in position. Target located at-"_

"_-are you waiting for, Private? Take the shot!"_

"_Take it! That's an order!"_

**Bang**

...where a part of the soul was forever lost.

"_...good work, Private."_

That shot was but the first of many. First kill of many. The voices then get all tangled up, making it difficult to hear what they were saying. It made his head hurt, which was bad since pain meant life, and life was the last thing he wanted now.

"_-secondery objective-"_

"_-too many! Need an evac now!-"_

"_-primary target neatrulized-"_

"_-all dead! Repeat, all dead! They-"_

"_-I saw you take that shot that got General Bulldozer. Not bad, considering-"_

"_-now, seems like you lied about your age-"_

"_-could prove grounds for a Court Martial-"_

"_-are in need of talented people such as-"_

"_-don't really got much of an option, kid-"_

"_-welcome to Special Ops-" _

"_-will be certified sniper, but will still be Private-"_

"_-don't want to make a bad example, now do we?-"_

"_H-hello, s-son, how...how are you doing?"_

Everything cleared up. There was no noise to distract. It was as clear as it had been the first time he had watched the holo-mail.

"_I...I know that, when we last spoke, we...I said some things and...I'm sorry. I just...your mother and I have been worried sick ever since we heard what happened at Gryphon Colony, how so many Federation soldiers were lost and...please, son, just...just be carefull, okay? You do what needs to be done and come home safe, okay? And...write to us...please. Love you."_

"_-was so releaved to hear from you, my boy, though I had hoped it would be a holo-mail, if only to see you in your uniform. But, I-I am glad to hear from you, and your mother sends her love. She wanted me to tell you that she's sorry for not being here to say hello, a big emergency is going on at the hospital, some kind of mining incidant.-"_

"_-anyway, we back home just heard that the rebel stronghold in Gryphon Colony fell because a brave pilot managed to take out the defences singlehandedly. Wyeth, something. Eddard Wyeth, I think. And from the sounds of things, he's been busy at the front. Eh, anyway, everybody are all optimistic back home, and talks are that since the last two remaining strongholds are under siege, the war could be over this year! Just...just hang on, son, its almost over. We miss you."_

"_-are you coming home? The peace talks are all but over. Soldiers are coming back to they're families. I know, not all of you can go home imidiatly, but...its just that we've been waiting for so long to see you, we have so much to talk about. Heh, I think I can give you the motivation. Here, let me show you what I attached to this letter. Yup, that's right, son, I ain't kidding you. The little guy came about a year after you left. We wanted to tell you in person, but...well, maybe this way you'll come home sooner. After all, you now have a little brother who's looking very forward to meet you." _

In the darkness, tears came from his closed eyes.

* * *

The sounds of birds came. He felt the warmth coming from the sun and smelled the grass. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was standing in the field near they're summer house. It was standing there, on the hill overlooking the sea. He could see two figures standing outside, waving him, beckoning him to come. He started to walk towards the house, feeling the tall grass brush against his hand. It felt good. 

As he came closer, the two figures walked inside the house. The summer house itself looked exactly as he remembered it. Peacefull. Still looking freshly build, even when it was build over eight years ago. He walked up the steps and stood in front of the door that lead inside. The door was open, but instead of showing the small hallway that lead to the kitchen, there was nothing but complete darkness.

But he could hear them.

"_Come on in, son, we're waiting for you!"_

"_We have so much to talk about."_

They were calling for him.

"_Hurry, Cain! Your little brother is taking his first steps!"_

"_Yes, just walk inside, and we'll all be together again!"_

_Together again...yes. I'm coming._

A small smile appeared on his lips as he stepped towards the door-

-only to have someone stopping him.

Blinking, he turned around and saw a tall figure, taller then himself by far, but it was all...blurry, distorted, like he was looking at it through water. He could hear something coming from it, but it was barely a whisper and he couldn't make out the words. Behind him, he heard his mom call for him and he turned to go through the door, when he saw the figure was holding his right hand, stopping him from going.

He pulled his hand, trying to break free, but the figure refused to let go. He said something, or at least, he thought he did but he couldn't recall hearing what he had said. As he kept pulling, he heard the calls from his mom and dad slowly fade, and the figure's voice slowly rose, untill it was all he heard.

Then, the blurriness of the figure slowly started to spread, soon obscuring the house, the green fields, the sky, the entire valley.

Blinking once more, Cain regained consciousness.

* * *

At first, he saw nothing but a red haze. 

But soon, he saw shapes behind it. Odd looking shapes and yet they looked so familiar...

Cain coughed, and to his utmost surprise, watched air bubbles come from his mouth and head towards the shapes. A second later, he realised he was underwater and needed air. Fast.

His right hand was above the surface and he felt something was around it but he couldn't tell what it was. Gribbing it harder, he used it to pull himself up to the surface. The moment his head was out of the water, he gasped for air, but something was stuck in his throat. Retching, water poured out of his mouth and started coughing uncontrolably, gasping for air between coughs. It was difficult to breathe, as his chest hurt, but he toughened it up and ignored it. He opened his eyes and almost closed them again, the sudden bright light almost too much for his eyes.

Blinking, he finally looked around, and almost flinched in surprise at what he saw.

He found himself floating in a large pool, his blood mixed heavily with the water where he was, and severel of the fish aliens stood in the pool, all looking at him. The one in the front, a violet skinned one, wearing some kind of red robes around its shoulders, said something to Cain and made a gesture with its hands, but the meaning was lost on him.

"I..." He cleared his throat a bit more, "I don't understand you," he said, shaking his head and hoping the alien would understand the gesture. It stayed silend, looking like it was trying to think of a way to be understood, when the wall Cain was leaning against suddenly shifted and spoke. Startled, Cain turned and saw his own reflection in a silver white/violet armour. Looking up, a familiar alien face was looking down at him, its left hand reaching into something on its armour that resembled a small pocket, while the right hand was...holding his hand.

Before Cain could think if he was seeing right, the alien's left hand retrieved from its pocket and its long, three-fingered hand was an all too familiar blue glowing ball.

_That's about the last thing I wanna see right now_, Cain thought sourly, while the purple alien on the other hand, looked quiet surprised and said something to the other, who replied and made a gesture towards Cain. It then handed the ball closer to Cain, as if wanting him to take it. He paused for a second, wondering what was so special about the damn thing, then mentally shrugged and took it. It still looked the same and he still didn't know what it was, but when he looked over at the purple alien, it pointed at the side of its head as if...

_My ear? I'm suppose to place this thing in my ear?_

His thought was confirmed when the alien pointed at the side of its head again, and for a moment Cain wondered if he should just laugh at what was beeing asked of him. Then again, the aliens had made no threats to him, so why should they want him to place something deadly in his ear when they could easily do it themselves by force?

Silendly cursing himself, Cain placed the damn thing in his ear.

And almost cried out in surprise when he felt it sink into his ear. The sensation was most disturbing, and for a panicked moment he thought he had placed some kind of a mind-control thingy inside his brain, but then the moment was gone and whatever the ball was suppose to do was over.

"The hell was that?" Cain half-mumbled to himself while picking his ear.

"Universal translator, Great One."

Cain froze, then slowly looked at the purple alien, not believing he had heard right, "...what?"

"What you were given serves as a translator and will help us communicate with one another, Human."

"...oh." Cain still couldn't belive he actually now understood an _alien language_ by just placing some shiny thing in his ear.

"I am Kelehm, and I bid you welcome aboard our ship and we all are most reliefed to see that our healing waters were able to save your life. Truly, this proves that Humans are survivors and it strengthens our hope to find more," what most surprised Cain was how the alien spoke to him with such...awe and respect, and Cain saw that it was shared by the rest, the way they looked at him and some even bowed when his gaze fell on them.

Cain suddenly realised he still had his finger in his ear.

"Ah, sir, I am Sergeant Cain Duncan from the Federation's Special Ops and..." And what? What was he suppose to say? Or ask?

Thinking about the Federation reminded him of Edumea and the last thing he had seen of her.

"Sir, my home, what happened to it? Is it-" The alien called Kelehm looked away, his face saddened. The same went with the rest of the aliens. It only confirmed what Cain feared to be true.

"...no..." Cain felt his legs go weak, and would have sank underwater, but the alien next to him had seen it coming and gently supported him. He barely noticed it, his gaze was at the water around him, and through his blood in it, he could almost see Edumea dying again.

Cain blinked and looked back Kelehm, "sir?"

"I said, we are doing our best to find any more survivors, to tell them the Aurelians offer assistance and aid, so not all is lost, Human," _maybe, but without those translators they don't have a clue what you're saying. They might even think you're the ones who attacked us in the first place._

"I...I understand, sir," was all what he could think of saying. But when he looked where he had been shot, he suddenly realised how much blood was in his uniform and how much was in the pool, "Uh, s-sir, how..." his voice trailed off when he gently pressed a hand to his stomach. It still hurt like hell, but there was no hole in it anymore.

"Yes?"

"...how were you able to...fix me like this? I had lost so much blood and...the wounds were so serios."

As Kelehm replied, his hands gestured at the entire pool, "Our holy waters have the ability to heal any kinds of physical wounds, regardless of what species. Yes, your wounds were great, Human, and for a time it looked like we had placed you here too late, but our prayers were with you, and it would appear you were not yet meant to leave this life."

_...not for the lack of trying_, Cain thought, remembering a dark door and hearing his parents call for him on the other side, _...I would be with them now, if it hadn't been for..._

Not really thinking, Cain glanced up at the alien that was still supporting him, and seeing his face, he realised who that blurry figure had been that had stopped him. Cain looked away, the soldier in him trying to think of something to do or say, trying to wrap his mind around just what had happened couple of hours ago and not to just curl around himself and have a breakdown, when an immense fatique suddenly overcame him. It did not go unoticed by the Aurelians.

"But it would seem the struggle for life has been most draining. We offer you our hospitalidy, Human, and hope that you will recover."

Cain just nodded, too focused on not to black out. He was dimly aware of the alien next to him say something as it half-led him out of the pool. His uniform felt like it weighted a ton, but he forced himself to endure it. Walking felt awkward and more then once he almost tripped by his own legs as they made they're way out of the large chamber, feeling the gaze from the Aurelians on his back.

"Are you alright, Exaulted One?"

_Exaulted One?_

"My...legs aren't responding well," the alien nodded and Cain saw that it..._he_...allowed himself to be just a little closer to him, as if ready to catch him should he fall. Luckily, it didn't happen.

Cain wasin't still out of the large chamber and already he was amazed by the arcitect of the ship, as he slightly paused in front of water that seemed to float on its own, looking like it served as some kind of door. But the alien simply walked through it so Cain figured it must be safe. But that didn't stop him from closing his eyes as he walked through.

The human and the Aurelian slowly made they're way down a long hallway, the human looking around in an undisguised wonder, the memory of his planet forgotten for the moment. They passed by other Aurelians here and there, all of them bowing in respect and Cain honestly didn't know how he was suppose to react to such...action, so he simply just nodded.

Thankfully, they reached their destination quickly. Walking through another water-door, it lead to a room that held severel beds and Cain imidiatly thought it resembled barracks.

"This room shall serve you as your own, Exaulted One. I hope that you will find it suitable," hearing this took Cain by surprise.

"But...what about those who sleep here?"

"They were most honoured to hear that their room had been selected as your own, Exaulted One. It is of no bother."

_Again with the "Exaulted One." They're treating me as if I'm royalty or something._

The Aurelian sounded like he meant what he said, but before Cain could do or say anything else, loud commotions were heard outside as severel people rushed by.

"Excuse me, Exaulted One," said the alien and walked through the water door. Even though the other side was all blurry, Cain could see him grab a hold of one passing by and ask him something. A few seconds later he came back, hurrying in as if the news were of most importand, "Exaulted One, most joyfull news! A Human ship has contacted us and is on its way to dock with us."

"A ship..." for couple of seconds Cain didn't move a muscle, then suddenly realised what he had heard and moved quickly. A bit too quickly, as his legs still had trouble to move properly and he fell on his knees. Cursing to himself, he looked up and saw the Aurelian had offered a hand, which Cain accepted.

"You are still weak, Exaulted One. There is no shame in resting after the battle you have just endured," the alien suggested gently, but Cain shook his head.

"No, I need to find out how many...how many survived and...I-I need to know,"

"Very well." Cain tried to take another step but almost fell down again but was caught by the alien.

Clearing his throat, Cain softly asked without looking at the tall alien, "Could...could you maybe..."

"As you wish, Human."

* * *

As Cain, leaning on the alien, came closer to the dock, he could hear Kelehm's voice, soon followed by unmistakenly a human voice. And as they passed through the water door, he could see the ship docked was indeed a human ship, though he didn't recognise the configuration. But he did recognise one of the humans standing in front of Kelehm. 

"Captain!" Cain let go of the Aurelian and limped down the steps, passing by Kelehm and someone wearing silver armour and stood in front of a very surprised and shocked Captain Gideon Wyeth.

"Wha- how did-"

"Sergeant Cain Duncan from Special Ops, sir," Cain interrupted, saluting.

Captain Wyeth blinked surprised, looking like he was about to ask something, then noticed Cain was still saluting and returned it, "Sergeant, how did-"

"How many, sir?"

"...what?"

"How many ships managed to escape? Where are they?"

"I..." for a moment, the Captain looked down at the floor, then back at Cain with a sad face, "...well, Sergeant, as far as we know, we are the only ones."

"...oh."

Then he fainted.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author: Okay, first, just...wow. I've only posted three chapters and already I've received over 280 hits! Makes me wish more of you would leave a review behind, but I ain't gonna complain. Oh yeah, before you start reading, I want you to know that I had planned on making this chapter long, though it turned out to be a bit too long so I decided to split it into two parts, only...well...an incident occured this morning and it may take me a while to upload the second part, and since the exams are still around the corner, my mom thinks its not a high priority. I'm not making any promises but I'll try to upload the second part sometime this week.**

**On a final note, I've just made a friend who is more then happy to go over my work and correct spellings. Special thanks to Neil. Hope this chapter has been worth the wait. Please review.**

* * *

For a long time, Cain just stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, trying to remember where he was and how he had got here.

And when he did remember, he wished he hadn't.

Biting back tears, Cain took a deep breath and raised himself up, but hissed when pain erupted in his back and front. He slumped back down and breathed deeply until the pain passed away, then slowly raised himself up in a sitting position. He was in the room the Aurelian had shown him, the one that reminded him of a barracks. Lying in one of the beds, Cain finally noticed that an odd looking blanket covered him, the material feeling oddly soft and almost silk like. When he pulled it away and exposed his chest, he almost cried out in surprise.

There were three ugly scars on his body. Two in the chest area and one where his stomach was. Each scar made it look like his skin was...ripping apart, fracturing, and when he gently touched one of them, it felt rough like a rope.

"You've got the same things on your back."

His heart nearly leaped into his throat at the unexpected voice. Looking to his left, Cain saw an occupant in the bed next to him. A fellow human, resting easy with his hands behind his head, though not just any human.

Flight Commander Ethan Wyeth. Hero of the Federation. The sole reason why they had won, as everyone said.

"S-sir!" Cain straightened his shoulders and saluted, ignoring the mild pain that came from his chest, but Commander Wyeth only waved his hand lazily.

"No need to be formal, kid, it's not like I can throw you in the brig for disrespect," Wyeth said, offering a relaxing smile. Cain hesitantly lowered his hand, feeling slightly uncertain in what to do next. As he shifted his legs, he felt the blanket touch his skin. Without thinking, Cain raised the blanket up, and to his horror, saw the only thing he was wearing were his boxers. But before he said anything, Wyeth spoke again.

"Yeah, about that. Well, since your clothes were all messed up, our new alien _friends_ offered to clean 'em up. They returned it back about an hour ago, they're on the floor right next to you, along with all your stuff," and, true enough, his clothes were neatly folded on the floor, along with his sniper rifle, army knife and his two FAUST C-41. Cain slowly got out of a bed clearly made for someone much taller, and when he stood on the floor, he momenterily wobbled but managed to steady himself. He quickly went into his pants along with the socks and boots, and after he had put on his shirt and concealed his army knife in his right boot, he held the grey military jacket in front of him, carefully inspecting it.

Not a drop of blood was on it. It looked as clean as it was when he first got it. The only things that looked out of place were three small dark patches on it, front and back where the bullets had gone through. The fabric felt similiar to the blanket earlier, though he could feel these ones were tougher. He put it on but didn't zip it up or anything, instead letting it hang loose around his body.

As he bend down to pick up the two pistols, he noticed something lying between them.

When he realised what it was, his heart skipped a beat.

_...no...can...can it be?It's still in one piece?_

The object was small, round, easily fitted at the palm of his hand. Carefully picking it up as if it was made out of glass, he felt its familiar weight as he stared at it.

_Could it still be working after...after all this? After all that has happened?_

It still had power. All he needed to do was to press the small button and he would see...

_...no...no, I can't...not now. I don't think I can handle it, must wait...untill..._

Cain's thoughts were interrupted by familiar watery sound as someone walked into the room, "I see you're up."

"Sir," Cain said, quickly putting the Holo-Projector in his pocket and stood at attention as Captain Wyeth entered the room, along with the woman Cain had seen in the alien hangar before passing out. Still lying in the bed, Ethan rolled his eyes but made no comment.

"We don't need to be formal. Cain, was it? How are you feeling?"

"I'm...a bit disoriented, sir, but otherwise I'm fine," Cain replied, allowing himself to relax just a bit, as he studied Gideon. He was young, probably couple of years older then himself. And even though his older brother was a war hero, he too had managed to pull a few stunts before the Colony War had ended. A part of Cain wondered what kind of person's the Wyeths were, considering the history of their family, of their father, Logan Wyeth, the famed miner turned pilot, turned Admiral. Did they try to live up to the family name, did they take it seriously or were they spoiled brats because of it, as Cain had heard many marines say so?

"Yeah, I can imagine. You were quite the sight, all...covered in blood and all," said the woman. Even though she was dressed as civilian, Cain could tell from her stance that she was military trained as well. A pilot, no doubt, considering her figure, "The name's Marin by the way. Captain Marin Steel."

Marin offered her hand Cain somewhat hesitandly shook it, opening his mouth to speak but Marin beat him to it, "And no sir or ma'am. Kinda pointless right now, if you know what I mean," Cain just nodded and turned to Gideon.

"How long was I out, sir?"

"Well, we were pretty beat ourselves and after taking you here we took some rest, so I'd say...around twelve hours."

_Twelve hours? And I still feel tired? Then again, I did manage to give Death the finger..._

"Yeah, and while we're on that subject," Ethan said as he sat up in the bed, eager to join the conversation, "mind telling us how the hell you managed to get shot? I mean, as far as I know, the weapons those aliens were using were all energy based and your wounds were made by bullets."

Cain simply shrugged and said, "Got shot by my own kind, sir."

Ethan blinked, waited a few seconds and blinked again, "Ookay...I think I'm gonna need to hear the long version on this one."

And so Cain told them.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, after he had told them, they all said nothing. But their silence wasin't because of shock or surprise. In fact, Ethan half-nodded to himself, no doubt having seen many soldiers crack under pressure during the war, including Gideon, though his face betrayed some sadness. Marin looked like she wanted to say something, but either couldn't come up with anything or simply decided not to.

"Sir, you and Commander Wyeth were the pilots of the ambasador's ship to the first aliens. Can you tell what happened, sir?"

They did.

* * *

"...wait...someone onboard their ship, one of their own...told the second aliens, the, the..._Seekers_, the location of our planet?" Cain slowly said, not even believing his own words, even less what he had been told.

"Yeah," replied Gideon. How else could he have answered?

"...but..." Surprise. Shock. Anger. Hate. All flying around inside him, trying to be in control, but the battle of the emotions only made Cain feel dumbfound. But his brain was active enough to remember something else they had told him, "...wait, you said that the Aurelians said something about us being...survivors?"

"Yeah, they did. Our contact with them was a bit short, but they said something about us, that we are...I'm not really sure what they meant, but they said something about us having...powers. Divine powers, if I heard it right," Gideon said, half shrugging. Marin blinked with a surprised expression, clearly hearing this for the first time, while Ethan just snorted and shook his head.

"Divine...powers? What did they mean, sir?" Cain asked, with no idea just how he could react to such...nonsense.

"Well, I was planning on asking Kelehm, uh, an Aurelian that looks like to be in charge here," _Kelehm...I remember him_, "but decided first to see how you were."

"Yeah, well, feel free to do that without me," Marin said, heading back towards the watery door, "I'm gonna head back to my ship, see if the scanners have picked up any transmissions on our channels."

"Mind if I tag along? As much as I enjoy having some well deserved beauty sleep, even I can find that to be a bit boring," Ethan said, half-limbing with Marin out of the room, leaving Cain alone with Gideon, who looked like to be leaving as well.

"Permission to come with you, sir?" Cain quickly asked, putting his body into ready position out of pure reflex.

"Sure. Any particular reason?"

"No, sir, I just want to find out why we all of a sudden have become just a step away from total extinction."

* * *

As they walked away, Cain glanced behind him to make sure the guard was out of sight before turning to Gideon.

"Sir, did he just call us _"Exalted Ones"_?"

"He did. Why?"

"N-no reason, sir, but its just that...ever since I placed that translator in my ear, that's what I've been hearing them call me. I was kinda hoping I had placed it upside/down or something, since its all...just..."

"Weird? Freaky?" Gideon offered as they made a turn.

"That's...one way to put it, sir. I mean, to have our first alien contact and then to be told that we're...special, that have these...powers. Its all just...just..." Cain paused, then started over again, "I saw and did...many things during the war, sir, but I've never seen something that would describe us to be...mystical. If we have any special ability or powers, then it is that we are very good at killing."

Gideon looked at Cain with a raised eyebrow, "That's a rather glum view on us, though I really can't argue against it. But that's not all that's bothering you, is it? I mean," he quickly added, "with the Aurelians and what they've told us so far."

For a few moments, Cain said nothing as they walked. But just after they had passed three more Aurelians who bowed in their special way, offering condolances for their loss, he finally voiced what had been bothering him and had refused to leave him alone, "...what if they made a mistake, sir?"

"What do you mean?"

"This, them, the Aurelians," he said, gesturing around them, "they look on us as if we are their gods made flesh, speaking of divine powers and yet...in our entire recorded history, there have been made no mentions of such things and...we've just barely started exploring the space, the plans on creating a hyperdrive are..._were_ still on the drawing boards, so its imposible that _we _went around and showed our _powers_ to the Aurelians, or any other alien species out there."

"What are you getting at?" Asked Gideon, his expression telling that whatever Cain was about say, he wasin't going to like it.

"What if the Aurelians made a mistake? What if we are not what they say we are?" That only made Gideon raise an eyebrow and looking like he was thinking of what he had just said, but Cain still had the worst question left, "What if this attack from the Seekers, of them butchering civilians before destroying Edumea, is nothing more then a mistaken identity?"

That made Gideon stop dead in his tracks, the expression on his face clearly stating that the thought had never occured to him, and a certain fear was in it, the fear of what if Cain had just said was true.

"...no, I...I don't, I _refuse_ to belive that all those deaths were for nothing!" Gideon hissed, now steel in his eyes though they were not pointed at Cain personelly, "I have no idea just what the hell is going on, why those aliens destroyd our home, k-killed my...our loved ones, but I'm gonna find out. I don't know why, or how, but I got this...feeling, deep in my gut, that this, all this, is part of something big. Huge. I know, I know," Gideon said before Cain could ask, rubbing his temple in frustration, "I don't know _how_ I know, I just do. Which, by the way, is the reason why we're going to Kelehm. For answers. Let's go," he started walking again, this time slightly faster, and with determination.

"Yes, sir," replied Cain as he walked with the Captain. A part of him shared with what Gideon had said, that whatever was happening it was a part of something huge. And yet, the doubt still lingered.

"I already told you, Cain, you don't have to go by the ranks. We're all in this together now," spoke Gideon, but Cain just shrugged.

"Force of habit, sir," Gideon looked at Cain, a small smile on his face as if he had just told a joke, and for a moment, Cain felt like smiling too.

But the moment had already passed.

* * *

Cain opened his eyes again as they passed through the water-door, and the room they had now entered looked like some sort of a small lounge room for only one occupant. The room was narrow shaped, with a small pool of water left and right with plants in them, and at the end of the room was what looked like to be a chair, the occupant facing the big windows that showed the red haze of hyperdrive travel.

"I had a feeling you two would seek me out, eventually," Kelehm said as Cain and Gideon walked up to his chair and stood before him, Cain on his right and Gideon on the left. His gaze was first on Gideon, then at Cain, "How are you feeling, Cain?"

For just a moment, Cain was a bit surprised at the first name basis and what looked like to be genuine concern in the Aurelian's eyes, but then again, the owner of those eyes was of an entirily different species so maybe he had just misread them or something, "I am better now, sir, thank you for asking."

Kelehm nodded and Gideon chosed that moment to cut right down to the chase, "Earlier, you said something about hidden powers?"

"I am a remnant of the Ancient Religion, Humans. All civilizations in the galaxy have individuals with the seed of such power. Our prophecies tells us that the Humans were the originators, and the masters of that power and through them, our own shall blossom."

"Do you have this gift?" Gideon asked, his curiosity clearly peeked.

"I do. And it is my hope that with it, I may be able to kindle something inside both of you," Kelehm said, gesturing at Gideon and Cain. For a second the both humans exhanged a look, a slight skepticims in Cain's expression.

"Well, I've never really been any good at magic tricks," Gideon finally said, while Cain kept his silence.

"Oh no, Human, this is no mere magic trick. This is your purpose. And it courses through every cell of your body," Kelehm was more and more sounding like a priest, and Cain momenterily wondered what status the Aurelian had among his people.

"Okay...but what can you do? With this power, I mean?" Gideon finally asked the question.

"Gideon, Cain," Kelehm said as he stood up, placing a hand on the Captain's shoulder, but Cain was a bit out of reach, "this is the sum total of a being's undeniable confidence, and if harnessed, can bend all the energy of the stars to your disposal."

Gideon and Cain glanced at each other as they both had the same thought, "So this power is a weapon," Gideon said, and only now was Cain's interest peeked.

_A weapon...something to have so we can strike back at those Seekers, make them pay for what they have done, hurt them as they have hurt us..._

Kelehm, on the other hand, blinked in slight surprise and noticed that both Humans were having the same thought, "Interesting that you would infer that," Kelehm said half to himself, with a hint of saddness in his voice, "So, the Humans will have me teach them?"

"Hold on, I'm not a believer yet," Gideon stated, while Cain silendly nodded.

"Very well, then. See the shell on the table?" Kelehm pointed at a table Cain only now noticed. It had couple of shells on it along with what looked like to be fruits, "Watch!"

Kelehm reached out as if he meant to pick up the shell, but his hand didn't go down, instead it just stayed up, slowly moving in a small circle. For a few seconds Cain thought the Aurelian had lost it, when he felt his hair at the back of his neck rise, quickly followed by an odd, yet very familiar sensation in his brain. This one also lasted for a split second, but it was more then enough to instandly recognise that it was the same feeling Cain had experienced when he had been brought aboard this ship, when he was slowly bleeding to death. It had happened when...

_...when Kelehm touched me...I...I thought I had imagined that..._

But Cain's mild shock and puzzlemend was replaced by even greater shock when a blue aura encircled around the shell, and it slowly rose all by itself and just floated there in midair. Gideon's jaw dropped as both Humans watch the imposible happen, untill the shell suddenly shook and fell back down on the table, and Kelehm stumbled to his seat.

"I...have never been able to sustain it for so long, " he said, sounding quite exhausted and yet...excited, "Are the saying's true, then?"

"Sayings? What...hey, how were you..." Gideon lost his tounge as he looked back and forth at Kelehm and the shell, while Cain slowly walked up to the table and picket it up, not hearing a word of what was beeing said behind him as an odd buzzing sound filled his head.

"And through their presence, shall all be made strong."

Gideon was silend, but you could see it in his eyes that whatever he had just witnessed, it had made him believe. But before he could ask Kelehm anything, a soft chuckle suddenly came from Cain, who slowly turned around, still holding the shell in his right hand.

"This...is it? This is why these Seekers did it? The destruction of Edumea, all because of...lifting shells?" His expression and tone of voice was calm, but the bad type of calm, a wave of storm and fury was brewing behind it, and both Kelehm and Gideon saw it.

"This is but a drop of a near endless ocean of potential, Cain," Kelehm explained in a gentle tone, as he tried to calm the Human's anger, "There are ancient scriptures, tablets that describe the power of Humans of such scale that many simply dismiss them as exaggerations or plain madness. But the Seekers believe every word, and the sad loss of your world only proves that-"

The shell exploded in Cain's hand as it curled into a fist. Still having that deadly calm look in his face, Cain slowly leaned into Kelehm's face, "Our world is dead, thanks to you."

There was no malice in his voice, no anger or hate. No accusation. It sounded like just a simple statement, but Kelehm flinched as if slapped and Cain walked passed the alien and headed towards the door, throwing away what remained of the shell into one of the pools.

"H-hey! Cain, stop!" Gideon finally yelled, after finding his tongue again, but Cain kept walking away, "Sergeant! Get back here!"

And for the first time in his life, Cain disobeyed an order.

* * *

He didn't know where he was going.

Back to their room? To the hangar where Marin's ship was?

He didn't know. But what he did know was that he needed to get away. Needed to be by himself, or he would do something he'd regret later. By sheer luck, no Aurelians crossed his path as he stormed down the corridors. Berhaps it was nightime for them or something, or berhaps they could somehow sense the anger boiling inside him and wisely stayed away from him?

Cain had been angry many times before in his life, oh yes, but this, the sheer rage itself was so much he couldn't even stop and wonder or be shocked at how great it was. It had come out of nowhere, right after watching Kelehm lift that damn shell. As he had held it in his hand, hearing Kelehm say something to Gideon, all he saw was the destruction of Edumea, the faces of his parents and...and his little brother.

It was just too much.

Cain suddenly stopped and breathed hard, like he had just been running, sweat splattered across his face. He suddenly snarled and kicked the wall next to him. It felt good, and even though his foot now hurt big-time, the blow had helped him clear his head a bit. He was still angry, but at least now he could think straight.

_First, I need to go somewhere where I can calm down. Second, I need to decide what to do, and thirtly, I need to figure out where the hell I am._

He had no idea where he was. He hadn't been paying the slightest attention in where he had gone to in his rage, and he saw no markings or signs anywhere, nor anyone to ask for directions.

_Which, now that I think about it, is a good thing, _Cain thought, as he felt his anger slowly rising again. With no idea where to go, he simply decided to continue walking towards wherever the corridor lead to. How long he had been walking untill he passed by the intersection, he didn't know. But it was there that someone crossed paths with him.

"How are you feeling, Exalted One?" asked an armored Aurelian as Cain passed by him.

"I'm fine!" Snapped Cain, a bit more forcefull then he had intended, but the word was spoken and he didn't feel like apologizing as he continued walking.

"...that is good to hear," the alien said, before he started walking towards where Cain had come from. Meanwhile, Cain continued to walk, until something occured to him, or, to be more precise, he realised something. Quickly turning, he could still see the Aurelian walking away. He opened his mouth to say something, hesitated, then decided.

"W-wait!" he shouted down the hall and walked fast towards the Aurelian, who had stopped and turned around.

"Yes? Is there anything I can be of assistance with, Exalted One?" The Aurelian spoke like nothing had happened less then a minute ago, and Cain resisted the urge to ask him to stop calling him Exaulted One, and instead asked his intended question.

"Do...do I know you?" Even as he asked he realised just how stupid he sounded, but that was what Cain wanted to ask. He honestly couldn't put his finger on it, but he just knew he had met that Aurelian before.

The Aurelian in question slightly tilted his head a bit, then removed his helmet and Cain was met with a familiar face of dark-bronze skin and bright gold colored eyes.

"You..." he breathed, feeling oddly surprised.

The Aurelian nodded, "While my relief of seeing you well is great, Exalted One, it pales in comparison to the honor of you remembering me."

Cain blinked in confusing at hearing those words, even more so when he realised just how seriously the alient meant them, "...er, o-okay...w-what's your name?" he blurted out, not coming up with any reply of such words.

The Aurelian blinked and the face suddenly held an odd expression that Cain couldn't read, and for a moment he feared asking for a name was an insult or something in Aurelian culture, but that quickly didn't seem to be the case, "I am Daggoth of the Raggar family, who are proud members of the Tenspur Clan."

"And I'm Cain...of the Duncan family," _the only one left... _The Aurelian, Daggoth, bowed his head, and Cain felt that there was something else he wanted to say to Daggoth, "Ah, listen, I...want to...want to thank you for..." _damnit, just say it, it shouldn't be this hard!_

"Saving your life, Exalted One?" Daggoth offered.

"Well, that too," _I suppose,_ "but...I wanted to thank you for n-not...leaving me alone aboard the transport back there," Cain finally blurted out. Daggoth blinked and had an expression Cain couldn't read, and for a dreadfull moment, a nasty voice inside him suggested that his plea back when he was wounded had made him look weak and pathetic, "I mean, I-I was in a bit of a shock and-"

"Cain," Daggoth replied and placed his large hand on Cain's shoulder, "no one wants to die alone," he said, sinceritiy in his eyes and not for the first time this day, Cain had no clue what to say.

_...is it me, or is Daggoth a bit taller then the other Aurelians?_

"Would you like a tour of this fine ship, Exalted One?" Daggoth suddenly asked. Cain almost said yes, but he felt imidiatly that his anger had not yet gone, it had merely paused but he could feel it now reaching out for him like tentacles. He needed to go somewhere to get it out of his system.

"Ah, actually, I was planning on-"

"There is one part of the ship I am sure you will find interesting," Daggoth went on, as if he hadn't heard Cain, "which is the Hologram Training Room. Holographic technology is still somewhat new to our culture and even though most of our Teachers do not believe it provides true battle experience, it has become rather popular among our younger generation. I myself was heading there for some exercise when I met you, Exalted One. Would you like to join me?"

"...yeah...I'd like that."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author: Hey guys, would have posted this chapter friday but something was wrong with so...**

**Anyway, before reading this I want to tell you all that I got no clue just how long chapters will be done in the future. I got another fic that needs to be writen, but again, I just dont know how things are gonna get. Its been times that I wrote an entire chapter in a day, while a week has passed without writing a single word. But I will try to writer chapters at...reasonable time.**

**Anyway, hope you all enjoy and please review!**

* * *

The Holo-Training room was roughly the same size as the one in Lurian station, although this one had no stairs or crates or anything. Just a simple room, square shaped. It's floor and walls were completly black, but were covered in small yellow squares. An odd electric buzzing sound was everywhere, as if the entire room was one big electric chip or something.

"It may not be much to look at now, Exalted One, but that will soon change once I start the program," turning around, Cain saw Daggoth standing next to the now closed metal doors they had walked through to get in, pressing some buttons on a panel, before turning to Cain, "I was planning on fighting against Seeker opponents. Is that...acceptable to you?"

For a few seconds Cain said nothing, then nodded.

"Very well," Daggoth pressed some more buttons, and suddenly the entire room became distorted for a split second, then everything cleared up.

"Whoa..." Cain breathed. The room was no longer a room. Instead, Cain was now standing in what looked like a starport, except it was much bigger then what he was used to, plus it was all so...alien-ish, and the sheer detail of the place was so well done, it made the what was on Lurian station just laughable, "...what is this place?"

"A Seeker hangar, Exalted One," Daggoth answered, and while he pressed some more buttons, Cain noticed two big hangar doors, one at each end of the hangar, showing the sky with some clouds. Wondering just how big the Holo-Room could project, Cain turned around and-

-and nearly bumped into a Seeker.

Cain nearly choked in surprise but instinct took over imidiatly. Jumping a bit back, Cain reached for his pistol, only to remember that he had left his weapons at their room. But he had taken his knife. He was about to reach for it, when Cain noticed that the Seeker hadn't moved a muscle, nor was it even looking at him. Instead it just stood there, twice as tall as Cain, not moving or making any kind of sounds.

"I was merely making a system check, to see if there any errors in the training simulation before we would begin. I deeply apologize if I startled you, Exalted One," came Daggoth's voice, right behind the Seeker.

"No, no, its...its okay," Cain lied as he side-stepped around the Seeker, keeping a close eye on the thing in case it would attempt to try anything, "But why is it...why is _he _standing like...that?"

Daggoth looked puzzled for a moment, untill he realized what Cain meant, "Ah, perhaps you are more familiar with this stance?" Daggoth pressed a button, and the Seeker fell forward. But instead of landing on his face, he landed with the extra limbs that Cain finally noticed he had on his longer legs. The fake Seeker now stood on all fours, a stance Cain had seen the real Seekers to often be in.

Slowly, though trying not to make it obvious he was on edge because of a simple hologram, he walked up to the Seeker, who now seemed to be breathing but did still not acknowledge Cain's presence.

_It, he, or whatever, is so...real. Hell, he even smells._

"Why was he standing on two legs, if he's just as capable of using all his legs?" asked Cain as he slowly looked over the Seeker, now for the first time able to actually study the species that had all but exterminated his race.

"A Seeker on all fours is considered to be a somewhat aggresive stance, Exalted One, though not necessarily hostile. More likely that the Seeker is on guard, ready for quick action. A Seeker using two legs enables him to run fast straight forward, while on fours he is somewhat equally fast, though the other two legs give him more mobility to move in other directions, quicker to react or evade."

Cain nodded more to himself then Daggoth, as he remembered the Seeker with the long spear, back when he and Colonel Harks and their unit were defending the evacuating civilians.

_Harks...did he think I was dead when I didn't come or responded any transmission? Or gone AWOL? I wonder..._

Cain stood in front of the Seeker, and even though he was on his four legs now, he was still head and shoulder's taller then the Human. Cain slowly reached out and touched the muscular arm, surprised that it was warm, when he had thought the Seekers were literaly cold-blooded. Or maybe they were, since this was just a hologram.

"Would you like to select your weapons now?"

"...yeah," a distortion sound was heard as Cain walked passed the Seeker, similar to the sound that came when the room formed into the hangar, though this one was on much smaller scale. As Cain approached Daggoth, he noticed the wall next to him had changed into what looked like a small armory, severel types of guns ready for use.

It took him a few seconds to realise that all the guns were types he knew, "Hey, those are all Federation weapons," he said, still not believing what he was seeing.

"Correct. When your government send us the large data containing your history, culture, literature and science achievements, it also contained some schematics of your weapons."

_That, without a doubt, was incredibly stupid of High Command. Still, can't really blame 'em, I mean, the ship they arrived in was the biggest thing anyone had ever seen, so I guess they all figured "This is it. Let them know everything about us and keep our fingers crossed." I think I heard one of the senators got so furious of the decision, he was sent to the hospital with an ulcer..._

Cain reached out and picked up a FAUST C-41, the gun looking like it had just got out of the assembly line. It was the perfect replica, even the weight was right. He carefully inspected the gun, untill his eyes reached the barrel of the gun, and Cain paused as he just stared at it.

For a bit too long, Daggoth thought, as he cleared his throat, "Will you be taking any other weapon, Exalted One?"

"Hmm?" Cain blinked as his trance was broken and looked at Daggoth for a few seconds, untill he remembered what they were here to do. He quickly holstered the gun and picked another, then automaticly reached for the sniper rifle, but then paused and glanced at the hangar. One look and he could see he would be at serious disadvantage with a sniper rifle, so he instead picked the ROCKWELL YOUNG XJ9 assault rifle, "Aren't you going to pick any weapons, Daggoth?"

What resembled a grin appeared on the Aurelian face as he placed his helmet back on, "I already have, Exalted One," he replied, his voice sounding slightly electricly distorted as he flexed his arms, bringing attention to the long blades attached to them. He then pressed a button on the panel and the weapons and the Seeker dissappeared, "The simulation will start in fifteen seconds, Exalted One. May we strike true at our simulated enemies."

"Is there any mission objective?" Cain asked as he readied his rifle.

"Survive."

"...sounds good to me."

* * *

_Three hours later..._

The Seeker gun clicked empty, its energy cell depleted. The wounded Seeker in front of him had staggered back at his shots, but was still very much alive. An animal growl escaped from his lips as he took aim at the Human. Acting on pure reflex and adrenline, Cain charged at the Seeker, holding the heavy alien rifle like a bat and struck at the alien's head before he could fire. He grunted in pain as he staggered from the blow, then fell down on the floor, looking disorianted. But before he could get back up again, Cain struck again with the rifle, breaking the Seeker's skull. Dropping the rifle, Cain grabbed both his pistols and looked for the nearest enemy.

Daggoth was close by, though he had his hands full with three Seekers. But the Aurelian warrior fought them with such ease, Cain couldn't help himself but pause and watch at how quick and deadly Daggoth was.

A roar from above snapped Cain back to attention. Looking up, he saw a spear holding Seeker had jumped from the platform above and was about to land right on top of him. He dodged to left, narrowly avoiding getting crushed by the Seeker, who landed in a crouching stance, not bothered the least by the high fall he had just taken. As he pulled himself up to his full height, Cain aimed up at the head.

A bad mistake.

With his attention up on the Seeker, he never saw the kick coming. It hit him hard in the gut and send him flying backwards, and landed hard on the floor. Cain tried his best not to puke as he tried to breath in much needed air, but the lungs seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. His vision momenterily became blurry, but the searing pain from his scars kept his mind sharp. Blinking to quickly clear his eyes, the first thing he saw was the same Seeker jumping towards him. A split second later, Cain brought his hands up to shoot the incoming Seeker, only to see his hands empty and only now realised that he had dropped his guns after the kick. He tried to reach for his knife, but it was too late.

The Seeker landed on top of him, the weight pressing hard on his chest, smothering what little air he had out of his lungs again as the masked Seeker growled within an inch from his face. Cain struggled futile, kicking out as hard as he could, but either he didn't hit anything importand or he was simply too weak. A large hand grabbed his throat and kept him pinned down as the Seeker raised himself up, took aim with his large spear and Cain could do nothing but watch as it plunged towards his face.

And suddenly the Seeker was gone.

Cain blinked, startled partly by the sudden disappearance, though mostly because the spear was just about to kill him. Taking a deep breath, his chest ached, his lungs burned and the scars made sure that he remembered they were there.

"Are you alright, Exalted One?" Asked a concerned Daggoth who suddenly appeared above him.

"Yeah, I'm," Cain cleared his throat, "I'm fine. What happened?"

Daggoth shrugged, "We died."

"Oh," Daggoth offered a hand and Cain took it and got back to his feet. His body protested for not being allowed to rest on the floor longer, but even though he was in pain, he didn't feel anything had been damaged. On the plus side, all the anger that had been before the fight was now gone, replaced by exhaustion. Looking around, the holo-room was still shaped like a Seeker hangar, but there were no signs of the battle that they had been in. It was so clean, it almost sparkled. Looking down at himself, he saw that all the Seeker blood that splattered on him was gone as well.

_Beats the hell out of fighting against green, yellow and red holograms._

"A most refreshing exercise, if I do say so myself, Exalted One," Daggoth said cheerfully as he removed his helmet, "it was a privilage to train alongside you."

"Likewise. And, umm...could you please stop calling me that?"

"Call you what?" Asked Daggoth, sounding honestly nonplussed.

"Exalted One. Its just...well, I don't mean any disrespect, but its just that my name is Cain and I'd prefer to go by it," he explained, finally saying what he had wanted to when he was first addressed as Exalted One. Daggoth, on the other hand, couldn't have possibly looked more confused.

"But...I am merely addressing you to an appropriate title. You are a Human, Exalted One, a member of a divine race that is the most respected and admired in many cultures, including ours."

_There's that damn word again. Divine._

"But that's just it! I'm nobody! I'm just a soldier who's trying to figure out just what the hell is going on! Fighting against an alien invasion, nearly getting killed by my own kind, hearing another alien race telling me that Humans are supposidly this, this demigod race and..." Cain realised he was rambling in a bit of a harsh tone, so he quickly took a deep breath to calm himself, "I...I apologize for being rude, Daggoth," Daggoth looked like he was about to say something but Cain raised a hand to silence him, "It's just that...you know that just recently, a war ended among my kind, yes?"

Daggoth nodded, "Yes, it was mentioned among the information you gaved us, though there was little else said about it."

"Yeah, I guess High Command felt a bit embarrased telling our first contact that we just had a war with ourselves," _that, and they didn't want to tell you our military strength in case you attacked,_ "But tell me Daggoth, if we are as great as you describe us, then why did we just spent several years killing each other? I fought in that war for four years, I saw and did many things, but I saw no signs of any...greatness in us, or some kind of powers that I've been hearing about. Isin't there a chance that you've made a mistake? That we are not who you think we are?"

"No."

The firmness in that word, how convinced Daggoth said it, made Cain speechless for a good few seconds before he found his tongue again, "But...why? How can you be so sure?"

"If you want to, Exalted One, I can tell you of some of the legends that speak of your race. I am no historian, but I shall do my best."

"...tell me everything."

* * *

_Severel minutes later..._

"Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight," Cain said as he paced back and forth in front of Daggoth, "in every single race out there, they all have stories or legends about a powerful and highly intelligent race that could-"

"What they did and who they were does vary from race to race, Exalted One. Some believe them to have been protectors or guardians, others as teachers or where there was darkness, they came to bring light to it," Daggoth offered, while Cain rubbed his temple as he felt a headache coming.

"Right, right, but..._all_ of them, every single one of them, in all their stories and legends, they refer to this race...as Human?"

"Correct."

Cain blinked, waiting for Daggoth to say more, but when it was apparant there would be none, his headache only increased, "But...that's impossible!"

"How so, Exalted One?"

"It...it just is!" Cain exclaimed as if that would make it true, but quickly realised a better explanation was needed to convince Daggoth. And himself, "I mean...for one thing, Edumea has always been our home and we have never had any reason to believe otherwise, and if Edumea isin't our home, then how did we get there in the first place? Where are the ships that took us there?"

"It is believed that before your true homeworld was destroyd by the Seekers, your powers had reached to the point where you no longer needed vessels of any kind to travel among the stars. And as such, instead of dying with your world, you were scattered across the galaxy. For over thousend of years, we Aurelians have searched the stars for any signs of the Human survivors. Not a single expedition has found any," a smile then slowly formed on Daggoth's face, "...untill now."

Cain just stared at Daggoth, as he was running out of options on how to argue otherwise. So he just closed his eyes and sighed, "Let me guess," he said, not really thinking, "this first homeworld that was destroyed was called Edagior?" Even as he said the name, he honestly couldn't believe he had just said it. The stories about a planet called Edagior and that all humans were from it had been going on for centuries. The stuff was mostly believed by whackos and guys with way too much spare time on their hands.

"Correct."

It took Cain a few seconds for the answer to sink in. And when it did, he looked at Daggoth wide-eyed, "...what?"

"The name of your ancient homeworld. It was Edagior," Daggoth then noticed Cain's expression, "Why do you look so shocked, Exalted One? After all, among the data you sent us we saw that several times in the planet's history, Edagior was mentioned many times,"

"Well, yes, but by...by..." _how do you say whackos and nutcases politedly,_ "..well, its just that a lot of people said we were from Edagior, but no one could actually prove it, so very few people believe it."

"Interesting. Tell me, Exalted One, when did you first hear the name Edagior?"

"I..." Cain used to credit himself that he had a good memory, yet he honestly couldn't remember where he had first heard it, "...I think I just...heard it somewhere. I remember asking my parents what it was when I was a kid," that, he could remember. They had said something it being a name of a place somewhere, but they didn't specify and he hadn't asked more of it.

"Hmm, like I said earlier, Exalted One, I am no historian and if there is anyone that can give you answers about the ancient Humans, then Kelehm would be the right one to go to."

_Kelehm...,_Cain then remembered his last words with the Aurelian, and was quickly filled with shame and guilt, _Oh man, I can't believe I said that! I just got so angry, I...,_ But it was no excuse and he knew it.

"Is there something of matter, Exalted One? You look...troubled," Daggoth asked, tilting his head in concern, while Cain tried to decide wether he should confess or not.

"Kelehm...what is his status in your culture? His job, or...role?" Cain hesitandly added, unsure for a moment if Daggoth realised what he meant, but judging by the proud smile on his face, he had understood.

"Kelehm Farwaters is a ninth tier Aurelian Garghon, Exalted One. A High Priest of the Old Religion, he is considered by many to be the epitome of nobility, full of wisdom, strength and pride. And, if I may dare say so, even though his support in the Aurelian Senate has somewhat deteriorated for the past few years, many believe he will still be selected as High Senator when Aurelia is admitted into the Galactic Senate."

There were a lot of words in that sentence that Cain didn't fully understand, Garghon being one of them though it propably meant priest as Daggoth had said. But _Galactic Senate_? It sounded huge and Cain was tempted to ask just what it was, but there had been something else Daggoth had said that caught Cain's attention, "You said that Kelehm's been loosing support in your senate. Do you know why?"

An expression that Cain had never seen appeared on the warrior's face as Daggoth averted his eyes away from Cain. He wasin't sure, but if he had to guess, Daggoth looked either embarrassed or shamed, "It...is a subject I am not proud to tell you about, Exalted One, but for the past few years, senators who are believers of the Old Faith have been slowly dwindling and N'kul support, or Seekers as you know them by, have been on the increase. Why lately, the arrogant charlatans have been making outragous requests and the senate has agreed with most of them. Dark times are approaching our world, Exalted One, people are slowly loosing faith in the Old Religion and nearly ten years have passed since the last Search was sent and," Daggoth noticed Cain's puzzled face, "for as long as we have had hyperdrive technology, Exalted One, we have sent ships to search for Humans, but N'kul influence has been growing at an alarming rate. In fact," this time, Daggoth looked most definantly embarrassed, "this Search was not...fully approved by the Senate."

_Wow, Kelehm really believes in us humans...which makes what I said to him even worse._

"I...I just have one question," Cain slowly said, as he could feel the remaining belief that the Aurelians were wrong about his race, was all placed in the question, "You said earlier that for over thousends of years, no one has actually _seen_ a Human, correct?"

"Correct."

"Well then, how can you be so sure that we are who you say we are, when you don't even know what a Human looks like? I mean, for all we know, our ancestors may have stumbled on something that spoke of Humans, and they decided to adopt the name," he knew what he had just said was extremely dangerous. It was quite clear the Aurelians were religiously devoted race, and such talk could easily mean heresy to them.

But Daggoth just smiled.

"Through out time, many artists of all the races have attempted to sculpture the Human form. Many have failed drasticly, true, but there are a handful who suceeded magnificently. But personally, I favor the one at our most ancient temple, Exalted One. I was but a youngling when I saw it, but the image still burns brightly," Daggoth had a far-away look in his eyes and it was clear the Aurelian warrior was feeling homesick. Cain, on the other hand...

_Sculpture? What did he mean by..._, then realisition hit him, along with the headache in full force, "Statues? There are _statues_ of us?"

"Correct."

Cain opened his mouth but no words came,_ This...this is just...huge. Unbeliaveble, I..._

"Exalted One, if I may ask," said Daggoth as he slowly walked up to Cain, "of all the things I have said about your race, you appear to have tried to point out specfic parts in the effort to convince me that you are not the Human race we have searched for so long. Why is that?"

"Because," replied Cain, looking down at the floor instead of up at Daggoth, "if we are so powerful, then why...why couldn't we stop them?" as he said those words he closed his eyes, and the image of Edumea dying burned so brightly, he felt tears slowly run down his cheeks. An understanding flickered in Daggoth's eyes as he placed his hand on Cain's shoulder.

_...strange. I've noticed they do that a lot. I wonder if this gesture means the same to them as it does to us, or berhaps it goes even deeper? And I've just noticed now that instead of squirming when touched, like I used to do since physical contact is something I'm just not used to now, I now find this to be oddly...comforting._

* * *

_Severel minutes later..._

Cain took a deep breath before walking through the watery door. Opening his eyes, he saw to his relief that Gideon was not in the room and Kelehm was alone, standing in front of the big window. His heart beating hard due to nervousness, Cain started walking towards Kelehm. As he came closer, Kelehm turned around and bowed his head in respect, "How can I be of assistance, Exalted One?"

For unexplainable reason, Kelehm calling him now Exalted One instead of his name hurt him more then it irritated him. Out of reflex, Cain stood at attention, eyes starring straight forward, "Sir, I came here to apologize for my words and inappropriate behavior earlier. I had no right to-"

"Exalted One-" Kelehm said as he walked up to Cain, looking mildly surprised, but Cain ignored him and continued talking.

"-to react in such a disrespectfull manner and I can only give you my deepest apology and-"

"Cain," Kelehm said softly as he placed both hands on Cain's shoulders. That made him shut up and he slowly looked up at the Aurelian priest, "you had every right to say that, and more."

"But-"

"If there is anyone that needs to apologize, it is me. I was rather over-eager when you and Gideon came to me, and due my eagerness, words were said that could have been properly explained, or prevented to sound like the tragic loss of your home was trivial."

Cain saw that Kelehm had more then earned his status as a priest, as the apology-speech he had been making and rehearsing inside his head for the past twenty minutes was pretty much out the window now, but there was one part of it that he just needed to say, "I can't hate you," he blurted out, "I wanted to. To blame you for what happened to Edumea, but...I can't. Because...because you are not truly to blame for it."

Kelehm's eyes seemed to brighten slightly at hearing at, "I am relieved to hear that Cain, and to have made sure that there are no muddy waters between us."

_Muddy waters? Oh, wait, he must mean bad blood._

"Likewise, sir, but I also came here to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Well, I've been...asking around a bit, and I heard that it is believed that when their..._our_homeworld, Edagior, was destroyd, Humanity was scattered. Is that true?"

"That has always been our belief, yes."

"So there is a chance that somewhere out there, there are still Humans?" Cain asked, trying not to look as hopefull as he felt.

For a moment, Kelehm slightly hesitated before answering, "As I said, that is our belief, but we have also had a long suspicion of the N'kul slowly destroying the last remnants of your race for a very long time. A suspicion that has only now been proven true, which would mean several, if not hundreds of worlds have perished like your Edumea."

_...hundreds..._

Some would have been too shocked to say anything, but to Cain, it only strengthen him to ask Kelehm, "Sir, I also came here to ask you if...if you could teach me how to...harness or access this power we are suppose to have. To show me why the N'kul are doing this to us."

Kelehm blinked, and as his hands slowly left his shoulders, Cain feared the priest would say no. But instead, "So you can use it as a weapon?"

There was no accusation in his tone or harshness, only curiosity with a hint of sadness. Cain took a deep breath before answering, "To say that hasn't occured to me, I would be lying. Yes, I want to use this power to attack the Seekers, to hurt them as they have hurt me. But I have seen what happens to people who get consumed by their own hatred, their thirst for revenge, and I have no intentions to end up like that. I also realise that there is no way I can guarantee what I've just said, so all I can do is to give you my word that I will try and not allow hatred or revenge to control me."

Kelehm looked into Cain's eyes for good few seconds before responding, "You speak with wisdom that is beyond your age, young Cain," then he smiled, "It will be a privilage to teach you and Gideon your noble birthright."

Hearing Kelehm say that brought a surprisingly amount of immense relief inside him, and Cain bowed his head, "Thank you, sir, I'll try my best."

"I know you will, Cain."

"When can we start?"

"Gideon left less then an hour ago, he said he intented to go to their ship to see if its scanners had picked up any transmissions," even though he hid it well, Kelehm had little hope that they did, "We can begin when both of you are ready."

"I'll go see him then," Cain bowed his head again, turned and walked towards the exit, feeling like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. There was still a great heavy chunk left inside him, and he doubted it would ever leave. But at least now it had become a bit more...bearable.


	6. Chapter 6

**AUTHOR: To say that I'm sorry for how long it has taken me to update would be a great understatemend. Its just that for the past two months, my computer has had no internet connection. Seems like my virus protection decided one day to protect my computer from viruses by blocking my internet access. Only two days ago did we finally get a guy to look at my computer and he figured out the problem in less then a minute. I only hope people haven't thought I've given up on this story...**

**And speaking about it, I had originadly planned on writing the journey to Aureliain one LONG chapter, but it just took a lot longer then I expected, plus I hit this major Writer's Block. Am still kinda suffering from it, but I will try to break from it quickly. And I'm afraid I can not predict when I'll finish the next chapter. Sorry.**

**One final note before you start reading below. I wish to tell you all that I haveNO intentions what so ever to replace Gideon with Cain, to make him better or anything like that. He is simply going to see things from his perspective and have his own demons and challanges to face. So if you've somehow gotten the impression I'm stealing Gideon's thunder, I assure you I am not even trying. I love Gideon as a character in the game and think he's super cool.**

**DISCLAIMER: The AR world belongs to the Mustard brothers (in my opinion) and due to somewhat lack of info in the game about Aurelian culture and all that, I've taken the liberty to create a bit by myself, to make this fic more believable and realistic. This is purely speculation and guesses on how things are in the AR world. Again, I own nothing related to Advent.**

**Oh yeah, does anyone know how the Colony War got started?**

* * *

Day 4.

Ethan took a deep breath before asking the question that had been burning in everyone's mind, but none having the courage to ask it until now.

"Just what is this stuff we're eating?"

None of them replied at first, though Gideon and Marin did momentarily stop eating as they looked at the bowls in front of them, containing what resembled spaghetti, only thicker and green in color. Throughout this Cain continued eating from his own bowl.

"I really don't wanna know," Marin finally said, before slowly resuming eating the green stuff. Gideon followed soon after that.

Ethan raised an eyebrow, looked at the alien food for a moment, then the corner of his mouth pulled into a teasing smile, "You know,-"

"No sushi jokes, Ethan. Not now, not ever," Gideon said sternly, holding up a finger as if warning his older brother, who held up his hands in a mock defence.

"Alright, alright," Gideon maintained his glare at Ethan for a few seconds before turning back to his food. The four humans ate in silence in their room for a while, untill Ethan mumbled a few words, just loud enough for the others to hear, "Still wanna know what this stuff is."

"Well, sir, I asked the one who delivered it to us yesterday what this is, though I think I'll be needing a second tounge to pronounce it correctly," stated Cain before drinking some water from a cup that came with the food, "Though the way he described how it's harvested, I'd say this is their version of seaweed."

At that moment, the three humans froze and Ethan's face momenterily looked as green as the seaweed he had been eating. Cain, looking like hadn't noticed the looks on their faces, resumed eating.

For a while, all three just stared at Cain in disbelief, "How...how can you eat this stuff?" Marin finally managed to ask, while Cain just shrugged.

"Compared to what the army made me eat, this is king's food," he then noticed his bowl was empty, but instead of putting it away, he pointed at Ethan's, which was still half-full, "are you gonna eat that, sir?"

* * *

Day 8.

"I think I saw it twitch a little, sir," Cain carefully said as he and Gideon walked away from the today's lesson with Kelehm. Well, to be more precise, Gideon stormed down the ship's corridor in a much similar fashion that Cain had once did, who this time followed his Captain.

Gideon said nothing for a few minutes, until he suddenly stopped and kicked the wall next to him with a grunt. After doing that, he placed his hands on his hips and bent his head down slightly , looking as frustrated as he no doubt must have felt.

"If this is something that once came as natural to us as breathing, it shouldn't be this hard!" Gideon exclaimed, pacing a bit back and fourth, looking like he wanted to continue kicking the wall. Cain let him pace around a bit more before speaking, while a thought wondered at the back of his head if the place Gideon just kicked was the exact same spot he himself had kicked.

"_Once _being the operative word, sir," Gideon stopped pacing but didn't look at Cain, "Sir, what we're trying to do, what Kelehm is trying to teach us, is something that we haven't done for over thousends of years. Even though if this power we are suppose to possess comes from the cells of our bodies, our souls or our minds, a long time has passed since it has been used, so it shouldn't be too much of a surpise if we have become...a bit rusty, sir," Gideon finally looked at Cain, looking a bit more calm.

"Sounds like you've given this some serious thought, huh?" Cain shrugged.

"I admit, I still find this all next to imposible to believe, but...I don't know, there are so many things that point it out to be true, I just can't ignore them. That, and if what we've been told is all true, then there may be more humans out there, and as a soldier of the Federation, it is my duty to ensure that they will not come to harm by the Seeker," that only made Gideon raise a skeptical eyebrow.

"I think you've been watching a bit too much of drama-movies."

"...maybe," Cain mumbled, finding the ceiling above him to be of sudden interest.

"You can drop the macho-soldier routine and just tell me up straight why you've become a believer, Cain," Gideon said in a half-joking tone, but meant what he said.

Cain didn't say anything imidiatly, but as he stared up at the ceiling, he felt the familiar weight of the Holo-Projector. He still hadn't turned it on. When he was alone, he would just stare at it, trying to work up the courage to switch it on, but the potential concecounces were just too great. He needed to hold himself together, now more then ever before. He was of no use to anyone if he was a wreck. But he also needed to have something to live for.

"...because it gives me hope," he finally said and then he looked at Gideon, allowing himself to show just a portion of how tired he felt inside him. The Captain looked momenterily taken aback at such a sudden show of emotion from Cain, but then slowly nodded.

"Can't argue against that."

And with that, both humans continued walking down the corridor.

_Severel hours later..._

Again, Ethan paced across the room and still couldn't belive his leg didn't hurt anymore. The doctors had told him there was a possibility he would be lame for the rest of his life, but one bath in the so called 'healing waters' of the Aurelians had fixed it. Hell, he felt ten years younger again!

He was about to walk across the room again, when he heard someone enter the room, followed by sounds of pained groans. Turning, the hero pilot was taken aback at what he saw. Leaning on each other and looking mighty battered, were Cain and Gideon, "What the..." was all what Ethan could come up with, untill his mind fully comprehended what he was seeing, "Aw, Gid', please don't tell me you actually somehow managed to get yourself into a barfight on an alien ship!"

"Shut up, Ethan," groaned Gideon as Cain helped him up on the bed. Cain then hobbled to the nearest bed and carefully layed down on it. Ethan looked back and forth at Gideon and Cain, waiting for an explanation. Not getting it, he folded his arms across the chest, a sign Gideon knew that his older brother had determined not to let the subject drop untill he had heard the story.

Taking a painfull breath, Gideon started explaining, "After our lesson with Kelehm, we walked around a bit, untill we stumbled on what looked like some excersice room. Some of those, uh, what are they called again..."

"Feledic Guard, sir," Cain offered.

"Rigth. Feledic Guard. Well, it looked like they were doing some martial arts training, so we thought about checking it out, to see how an alien race trained. Only, well..." Gideon trailed off, not meeting his brother's eyes.

"Only what?" Ethan pressed.

"We planned on entering quietly to observe, but we might as well have announced ourselves with fireworks, sir," replied Cain, a slight grimace on his face at the memory.

"And? How'd you get all beat up?"

"Ah, well, about that..." again Gideon trailed off, giving Cain a somewhat desperate look. Cain sighed as he continued Gideon's explanation.

"The Aurelians were rather excited to see that they had caught our interest, sir. One thing led to another, and..."Cain took a deep breath before blurting out, "they showed us how skilled they were in hand-to-hand combat and how we were not."

Ethan blinked.

Then he blinked again.

And then he burst into laughter.

As Gideon threw his shoe at Ethan, Cain rolled over and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

Day 15.

_If Kelehm had heard about what happened in that excersice room, he gaved no hint of it at our next lesson, nor the days that followed. But there was something in the air after the incident. Don't ask me how I could feel it, I just did. I confess I half expected some to openly question if Humans were as great as they had been lead to belive, or even some hostilidy towards us. And in the rare times that I actually managed to sleep, I once had a nightmare of severel Aurelians holding pitchforks and torches and accusing us of being false gods._

_But the feeling that overtook the ship was not in hostile nature. If anything, it felt more like everyone were holding their breath, thinking that if they made a noise, whatever they were hoping would happen, wouldn't._

_Which was confirmed after one of our trainings in the Holo-Room with Daggoth._

"That was rather...bold of you, Exalted One," Daggoth said as he shut down the program. The small Seeker outpost dissappeared and the familiar yellow/black walls returned.

"We were surrounded, my gun was half-empty, so taking as many as I could before they took me down seemed like the best move," Cain stated-matter-of-factly, not meeting Daggoth's eyes as he absendmindly rubbed his chest where a Seeker shot had hit him at point-blank. Even with the safety on, it had hurt like hell, and his scars were throbbing.

"There are times when such...action is unavoidable, I will not dispute that. But in this case of scenario, there were other options available. Such as holding out until reinforcemends arrive, barricading in a position that offered the best defence or taking advantage of the enviroment."

Cain paused as his mind went back to the outpost, the layout of it, enemy positions and the area surrounding the place and the plan that had subconciosly formed as they had battled, "...the armory and the communication room offered a good place to hold out, provided that the enemy had no explosives. The armory would have made sure we wouldn't lack firepower, and the communication room would have made us able to radio for evac," he finally admitted.

"It sounds like you came up with that during our assault, Exalted One," Daggoth pointed out politedly.

"Yeah, I...I did," Cain replied, feeling a slight discomfort as he knew what Daggoth would ask next.

"Then may I ask why you did not share your plan with me, or put it into action?" Cain shrugged.

"Its just a simulation," but he knew it was a lousy excuse, and judging by his expression, Daggoth felt the same thing.

"The purpose of these holo-decks are to keep a warrior's mind sharp for a coming battle, Exalted One. To keep a unit together, even though many will argue this technology can not bring the true realisim of war," somehow, Daggoth managed to sound both respectful, stern and lecturing at the same time.

"And so, when they enter a real battle, they risk becoming lax, sub-conciosly thinking its just a training simulation?"

"That is what many Teachers argue, correct. I do not expect to see many, if at all, holographic technology being used by the Felidic Guard, but it will no doubt be used by the military and civilians," Cain nodded for a moment, then paused and looked puzzled.

"Wait, I thought Felidic Guard was the Aurelian army itself?"

"No, Exalted One, not exactly. The Feledic Guard is the elite of the elite, guardians of Aurelia and its people. Its foundation stretches over thousends of years back, near the end of the Great Clan War. Its members are rigoursly trained, both mentaly and physically and joining is no easy task to say the least, as there are only two ways of doing so," Daggoth's stance changed as he spoke, puffing out his chest, speaking about the Feledic Guard with pride and honor, "either you are trained since birth, or you show an examplary skill in the military and are offered a chance to be trained as one of us. And due to our high-standards, it is no surprise that are few of us, only an couple of hundred. But I can say without arrogance or blindness of pride, that even though we are few, we are the best."

"Yeah, you guys certainly know how to pack a punch," Cain said without thinking, rubbing his jaw that had finally stopped aching after the little 'demonstration' by the eager Aurelians. A second later, Cain realised what he had said and quickly tried to cover his mistake by a rather clumsy attempt to direct the conversation elsewhere without it beeing too obvios, "I mean, I saw you in action in that warehouse, back in Edumea, fighting the Seekers. It was...something alright," he finished, trying to look relaxed and to look like he was just having a normal conversation. In truth, during the fight in the warehouse he had barely paid them a glance as he had made his way towards the mad soldier, but Daggoth didn't need to know that.

"Yes, we were greatly outnumbered but held our grounds, took many lives and lost none," Daggoth nodded, then tilted his head a bit and an expression that could be best descriped as mild amusemend appeared on his face, "and from what I've been hearing, Exalted One, you and the Human Gideon were shown a little demonstration, yes?"

_Aw, crap._

"Ah, yes, well, about that..." as hard as he tried, Cain couldn't think up a damn thing to say. Which was just as right, as he also had no clue just how he wanted the incident to look like; as either misunderstanding of some kind or even how to explain to someone who held his race in such high regards how he and Gideon had been beaten so badly.

But the challange left at what Daggoth said next.

"When Teacher Slevin found out mere Students had actually tried to impart the Ancient Teachings of the Feledic Guard to you, he flew into a fit of rage of such as I have never seen him in. He all but had them executed; instead he has put them into every lowly chore this ship has to offer and has them go through every excersize there is every day. Some are starting to speculate that the next time they are to clean the waste dispensers, an...incident may occur," to say that it was difficult to read Daggoth's emotions on the issue was a great understatement. Cain couldn't tell if Daggoth was silendly blaiming him and Gideon for what was happening to those Aurelians that had messed them up, or simply telling what was happening onboard the ship or even if the waste dispenser part was a joke or not. But what he could tell eyes was that Daggoth expected a some kind of reply.

"I'm...I'm sorry to hear that, Daggoth, that they are being punished from just a misunderstanding. I'm sure they only meant well, and Gideon and I weren't seriosly hurt or anything, so I-"

"I am afraid, Exalted One, that it is you who seems to have misunderstood, if you forgive me for saying so," interrupted Daggoth.

Cain blinked, "O-oh?"

"Yes..." Daggoth took a deep breath, glanced around for some reason, then motioned Cain to follow him out of the Holo-Room. Cain followed him without a thought, and after they had exited the room, Daggoth slowly walked down the blue hallway, with Cain walking beside him. For a few seconds Daggoth said nothing, and Cain could easily see the tall Aurelian was in deep thought. But finally, he started to speak, "Many civilizations here in the galaxy have factions similar to the Feledic Guard. That is to say, while they too are fiercly trained in martial arts and ways of fighting, wether it is on ground, in space or both, each one have their own fighting art and style that stretches back in their history. Some factions are part of their own military or government, while some are independent and such."

_Kinda like the Federation having Special Ops_, _I guess,_ Cain thought to himself but did not voice it, not wanting to interrupt Daggoth, though he was tempted to ask him what he had been saying had anything to do with the incident with the other Aurelians.

"Many are recognised and even feared for their skills and training, but even so, many of those have acknowledged that the fighting arts of the Feledic Guard are..." Daggoth paused, probably trying to find the right description word.

"Better?" Cain offered, but an odd throat-clearing sound came from Daggoth, as if politedly disagreeing with his chosen word.

"Effective, Exalted One," Daggoth corrected. As they walked down the ship's corridor, they reached an intersection that had a large window, offering a good view of the now familiar red haze of hyperspace-travel. The Human and the Aurelian stopped in front of it, and a silence remained between them for couple of minutes.

"I...see," Cain finally said, "...I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you're getting at," he admited, and Daggoth nodded, as if he had expected it.

"I realise that, Exalted One, and I apologize, but the reason for discussing the various fighting arts of other species, I wish to reveal to you that the Ancient Teachings of the Feledic Guard teaches us to harness our bodies to its full potential, though not just in brute strength, but to sharpen our senses, becoming more aware of what is happening around us and inside us, to know how much force one should put into one's blade or direct it for that matter. Meditation is one of the first that we learn, to train our minds. The path of a Feledic Warrior is a difficult one, Exalted One, and one must be both strong in body and mind," at this point Daggoth seemed to hesitade, and when he resumed speaking, he spoke somewhat slowly, as if choosing his words carefully, "And...among us Feledic Guard, it has been our belief for a long time that the Ancient Teachings were given to us by Humans."

It took Cain a second or two for the words to sink in, but when they did, he still wasin't sure if he had heard right, "W-what? But...why?"

"Some believe so because of the similarities of how our two bodies work, Exalted One, how joints and muscles appear to be in same places as us."

Without meaning to, Cain briefly looked at Daggoth from head to toe, and yes, asside from appearance, an Aurelian skeleton structure appeared to be similarly built to that of a Human, asside from the long legs and arms and the three fingers, among other things. But he still felt doubtful, "I find that to be a bit hard to belive. No offence, Daggoth, but I'm sure there are many other alien races that are similarly built like Humans" he quickly added, but the Aurelian only nodded.

"I share your doubt, Exalted One. However, there is more to the Ancient Teachings, what they offer in discipline and training. Many have spent an entire lifetime studying them, yet only the greatest of us have managed to master half of it. It is because of that, many have wondered if the Ancient Teachings were given to us by Humans, or if it was meant for Humans themselves, and our ancestors learned from you."

In a way, it kinda of made sense now, why the young Aurelians were so eager in showing him and Gideon what they knew. They belived they could, like Kelehm, help unlock something inside them. Something...well, something. Or maybe...

_...or maybe this might help us. I mean, you might say that Kelehm is training our minds, but why not body as well? Doing both might actually help us achieve something. And if it doesn't, at least we'll have something to do untill we reach Aurelia._

_Two Hours Later..._

"Bah! Pathetic! Completly pathetic! And to think that someone actually thought you worthy of wearing our proud armor! Again! And do it right this time!"

"Yes, Teacher," all three students replied wearily, all looking like they could barely stand before the ruthless Teacher, who either ignored their state or simply didn't care. The students lined up again and started performing what almost looked like a dance, all moving in such simultaneity that one couldn't help but wonder if it really was only one Aurelian doing the moves and had two other reflections of himself.

And yet, despite the perfect work of the students, a dissapproving hiss came from the Teacher, and the students couldn't help themselves but to cringe at what the Teacher would make them do next.

But the words never came.

The old Teacher was looking towards the dojo's entrance and looked completly frozen. Tempting fate, the students turned to see what had their Teacher distracted, and saw, to their mixture of horror and surprise, Cain and Gideon standing there, observing them. The students' movemend made the old Teacher snap out of it, "I did not give you permission to stop! Again!" he snarled and the students quickly obeyed. They went through the motions once more, and after they finished, the Teacher ordered them to leave. As they did so, Cain and Gideon approached the Teacher, while the students stayed far away from them as they left, no doubt not wishing to enrage their Teacher even further.

"Exalted Ones," said the old Teacher respectfully in his raspy old voice as he bowed, "how can this old one be of service to you?"

Cain and Gideon glanced at each other, and with the slightest nod from Cain, Gideon started to speak, "We were hoping if perhaps we could participate in your lessons, sir."

"O-oh, w-well, yes, of course! I- we would be honored, Exalted Ones," replied the old Aurelian, failing poorly to keep the excitemend from his voice.

"I hope we are not intruding in any way, sir, since we are not Aurelians and we have heard that the Feledic Guards are the Aurelians' finest warriors," spoke Cain next.

"None at all, none at all, Exalted One. It would be my greatest honor to instruct you and show you our proud Ancient Teachings!"

"When can we start, Teacher?" Asked Gideon.

They started immediatly, and as much as he tried not show it, the old Teacher was as happy as a schoolgirl with her first crush.

* * *

Day 18.

_Dear Diary._

Cain paused, looking at the small screen of the data-slate he was holding. As he sat by himself in Marin's ship, he wondered if he should change the entry. Shrugging, he continued.

_Stumbled on couple of these empty data-slates and Marin said it was ok for me to use one of them. I think I saw Ethan use the other one this morning but I can't be sure. If he is, i'ts none of my bussiness._

_Three days have passed since Gideon and I started to be tutored in the Feledic Guard's Ancient Teachings, or, in shorter words, their fighting arts. We are still covering the basics and already I've discovered muscles I didn't even know I had. Saying that after surviving boot-camp and Colonel Hark's training, is saying something. Convincing Gideon to be with me in asking to learn from these Ancient Teaching was easier then I thought. Maybe it had something to do with that the Aurelians believed the Ancient Teaching originated from Humans. Maybe it peeked his curiosity or maybe he was just plain bored when I approached him. Whatever the reason, both of us have started and quitting now would be like a punch in the face to the Aurelians. Daggoth hasin't made any comment about me and Gideon's decision, but I don't think he's unhappy about it. I think. I'm still figuring out how to read Aurelian's facial expressions and stuff like that, but I think I'm getting the hang of it._

_Anyway, not really sure what to write here, never had a diary before. Oh wait, Kelehm did tell us the other day that it will take us some time to reach Aurelia, four to five months. Around 125 days, give or take a few. Wahoo._

_I suppose I could write here how we are all...dealing with things._

At this point, Cain stopped writing and for a long time he just gazed out the window from the chockpit before resuming.

_Ethan and Gideon, well...from an outside perspective, they look like the loss of Edumea hasin't affected them much. They were born on Edumea, but at an early age the family moved off-world, so I guess they aren't very...emotionally attached to Edumea. But the Seeker's attack has affected them. All of us. But the brothers are close, they lean on each other for support. In their own way, of course. _

_Marin is...she hasin't really told much about herself. Aside from taking orders from them or discussing military related topics, I really don't know how to talk to women. But she's tough, both outside and inside, is fiercly independant and not afraid to speak her mind. If I had to guess, I'd say she was raised at one of the asteroid mining places. Those places can grow some mean people. Or could, that is._

_As for me-_

Cain stopped again, looking indecisive for a moment, untill a deep frown appeared on his face and started to type aggresivly.

_Each and every time I wake up, I gotta fight like hell to get up, to stop myself from just lying in bed and wait for everything to end. Each day, I at least glance once at my sniper rifle and wonder what it would feel like to have the cold barrel pressed against my temple, or how it would taste in my mouth. To stop myself from doing that also takes a hellish effort. And for what? To fight all over again the next day?_

_The holo-fights with Daggoth help, but not much, and I think he's starting to notice that something isin't right with me. And I just can't help it, having these thoughts, feeling so Goddamn hopeless. I want to just fall down and never get up again. Ever. _

_I know I shouldn't have these thoughts, I don't have the right. Who knows how many planets have been whiped out of existence by the Seekers? How many Humans have truly died by their hands? And for what? Are we in some way a threat to them? They've been at it for nearly countless millineaz, if what Kelehm has said is true. What are they so afraid of? Or is it fear that drives them to do this? Definately hatred, sure, but what caused them to hate us so? What did we do, our great ancestors, to deserve such hatred?_

_And now, probably for the first time, against imposible odds, four Humans have escaped the Seekers. Probably for the first time, they have never been so close to be exposed to the rest of the galaxy, of what they have been doing. And to cave in now, would be...it wouldn't be right, for all those who have died through time. It wouldn't be fair. It would be utterly and completly selfish to give up now. I know this. _

_But its just so damn hard. I just don't know if if if if-_

Cain abrudly stoped writing as his hands balled into fists and a slight snarl appeared on his face as his hands shook. Whatever he was feeling inside, simply couldn't be put into words.

Finally sighing in disgust, he pressed the 'delete' button on the data-slate and none too gently tossed it away as he stood up and walked out of the small ship.


End file.
